City councilor Gandara announces bid for mayor

Kasandra Gandara will host “Listening to Las Cruces” events in April across the city as she launches her campaign for mayor of Las Cruces.

Gandara said she will visit each of the city’s six council districts,” hosting family-friendly opportunities to hear what’s important to the citizens of Las Cruces.”

For details and directions to each “Listening to Las Cruces” event, call 575-373-0456 and visit kasandraforlascruces.com.

“I am here to represent all people,” said Gandara, including the “underserved (and those) living in the margins. I feel I am their voice.”

If elected, Gandara said she wants to continue the work she has started and the causes she has championed as the District One representative on the city council since 2015 and as mayor pro tempore for the past three years.

“I’m a collaborator,” Gandara said, citing as evidence her leadership on city policy review committees (PRCs) composed of city councilors, city staff and community members working together to develop  policies with communitywide impact on the wellbeing of city residents. Gandara is a member of the economic development, health and housing PRCs. The city also has a quality of life/education PRC and a transportation, sustainability and infrastructure PRC.

Gandara said she has also been a strong proponent of performance-based budgeting that mandates “accountability all the way around,” and the strategic planning that guides “how we run the city” and has brought accolades to Las Cruces.

As mayor, Gandara said she will facilitate greater communication between the city and the community.

“People are wanting that connection,” she said. “You see me at a lot of different places (because) connection and coordination with the public helps me understand where people are at. I’m a social worker at heart.”

Gandara said she also wants to “elevate small business” in Las Cruces and strengthen ties with El Paso, Juarez and other surrounding communities.

“I want to continue to be the trailblazer on a lot of these important issues,” Gandara said.

The city needs to be more proactive in the way it deals with community issues, Gandara said. For her part, Gandara said she is “committed to addressing” public safety, poverty, affordable housing (“absolutely a top priority”) health and behavioral health, business and workforce development and education.

“I will talk to anybody,” Gandara said. “I will listen and do my best. You’re going to get a responsive council and a responsive mayor.”

The current city council includes the “most amazing, compassionate people I’ve ever worked with,” Gandara said. “I want to be their leader.”

Lift Up Las Cruces, a city program “to improve neighborhoods one at a time,” will be a cornerstone of her administration as mayor, Gandara said, and part of her goal to reduce the city’s nearly 30-percent poverty rate.  

Gandara led creation of the city’s Mano y Mano day labor program that employees Mesilla Valley Community of Hope clients who are struggling with homelessness to assist city Parks and Recreation Department staff in cleaning and beautifying city parks and other property. The program was created in 2018 and expanded in 2022 to two crews of 20 people working five days a week.

The city’s Las Cruces Cares program, “another one of my babies,” Gandara said, hired two social workers as advocates to work with individuals, families and businesses who are victims of property crimes and violent crimes and need help negotiating the criminal justice system and dealing with personal issues.

Gandara wants to allocate $1-$1.5 million to build a regional substance abuse treatment facility in Las Cruces.

The city Economic Development Department has “grown by leaps and bounds” since it was created in 2017, Gandara said, and has become a major part of creating greater economic prosperity and building individual wealth in Las Cruces, she said, along with the growth of the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park and Las Cruces International Airport.

Small business development such as the city’s and state’s partnership with 828 Productions to build a film studio in Las Cruces means better paying jobs that will keep “kids here,” Gandara said, and make the city more attractive to businesses starting up or moving to the city.

“Business is always important,” she said. “I’m going to hear what their concerns are.”

The city council’s recent vote to designate portions of El Paseo Road, south Solano Drive and west Picacho Avenue as metropolitan redevelopment areas (MRAs) continues the city’s commitment to increasing public and private investment to address blight conditions in those areas, Gandara said.

Building on “the pride and the energy” of Las Cruces neighborhoods means addressing issues like completing sidewalks, improving streets and streetlights and having more police presence, she said.

Gandara said she wants to continue the city’s partnership with Las Cruces Public Schools to create more community schools to benefit students and community members.

If Gandara wins the Nov. 7, 2023, nonpartisan mayoral election, Gandara will succeed incumbent Ken Miyagishima, who is not seeking re-election. She would be the city’s first female mayor.

Visit kasandraforlascruces.com/about-kasandra/.