Chama Valley & Abiquiú Daily Digest Thursday, May 28, 2026
Ty's Take
The Barela situation up in Rio Arriba is the kind of mess that sticks around longer than anybody wants it to—a judge telling the county GOP chair he's got to go, and now the real work begins, which isn't the legal part but the figuring-out-who-stands-where part that happens at the coffee counter and outside Bode's. In a county where families have held land and influence for generations, where the old networks still matter more than most people admit, a forced removal from party leadership ripples through everything—not just politics but the whole question of who gets to speak for whom. The thing about small-county politics is there's nowhere to hide, and there's no such thing as a clean ending to something like this.
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Rio Grande SUN
Judge Orders Barela to Step Down as GOP Chair
A district judge has ordered Otero County Commissioner Amy Barela to step down from her position as chair of the New Mexico Republican Party. Judge Cindy Mercer of Valencia County issued the preliminary injunction on May 27, citing Barela's ongoing primary campaign as a conflict of interest.
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