One Tough Latina, Rebecca Jimenez, former Mayor of Guadalupe is baaack. Arpaio's Nemesis Jimenez is the leading Candidate for Mayor of Guadalupe!

Rebecca Jimenez is one tough Latina. In 2008, when she was Mayor of Guadalupe, she went head to head with Arpayaso.  At that time, Arpaio and his masked volunteer deputies terrorized her tiny town with his infamous, racial profiling Suppression Sweeps. The stops were a thinly veiled cover by Arpaio and his goons to ask about the immigration status of Guadalupe's almost-entirely brown-skinned population. Jimenez decided to take a stand. She delivered a press release to Arpaio, demanding that he cease his operations in her town. When she delivered the release, he happened to be talking to a Channel 12 camera crew. Arpaio was spitting mad! Instead of stopping the sweeps, he doubled down. The next day, he brought back his full masked crew, stalking and petrifying tiny Latino children during their Confirmation Mass. While Arpaio eventually backed off, he did conspire with Local elite to oust her from office. That was back in 2008.

Now in 2013, Rebecca Jimenez is back!  There is a new race for Mayor of Guadalupe. Despite a last-minute smear campaign by her detractors and with a surprise endorsement of the incumbent by Congressman Ed Pastor, Rebecca Jimenez was leading a four person pack in the race for mayor of the small town of Guadalupe last Tuesday. Rebecca Jimenez was the top vote-getter with 190 votes, leading current Mayor Yolanda Solarez, who clocked in with 169 votes. Maricopa County elections director Karen Osborne said the tally isn't final until the provisional ballots are counted. But as a majority is needed for victory, a May 21 runoff between the two women is a sure bet. Rebecca Jimenez was elated with her showing, especially given Pastor's surprise endorsement of her main rival and the fact Solarez was running as a team with a popular city councilman. She ascribed her lead to old fashioned, grassroots campaigning.