Fernando Macías elected District Attorney

Fernando Macias, who led Doña Ana County government for seven years and worked as a district judge for several years, will be the next 3rd Judicial District Attorney.

Preliminary results as of 12:30 a.m. showed Macias won 45,089 votes while hiw republican challenger, Michael Cain, received by 35,889 votes.

Macias’ victory comes after the current district attorney, Gerald Byers, was ousted in a four-way Democratic primary election in June. Byers received the fewest votes in a primary slate of candidates who attacked his office relentlessly. As the primary gave way to the general election between Cain and Macias, that trend continued.

At one debate in October, Macias described the office as “burning down right now,” while Cain called it a “dumpster fire.”

Both men agreed that the biggest problem facing the office was its inability to retain prosecutors – a problem predating Byers’ term as DA. Budget records show the office can have up to 20 lawyers, including the elected DA; yet at times over the last four years, it’s had less than half that.

Byers said on the campaign trail that a competitive market drove lawyers away from the office. His opponents, including Cain and Macias, blamed poor leadership.

The office also struggled to handle a massive load of dismissed cases in 2023. That same year, the state Supreme Court put in place Local Rule 303, also referred to as a case management order or CMO. The CMO sought to reduce a massive backlog of cases, some of which took years to resolve and left defendants in legal limbo or sometimes jail. 

The CMO put in strict timetables for criminal cases, depending on the severity of the crime. If the timetables go unmet, the case is dropped – a situation that played out repeatedly over the last two years and became the subject of critical news coverage of Byers’ office.

Both candidates promised to be more transparent about case dismissals and the office more generally, if elected.

But while Macias and Cain agreed on the problem, they presented different personalities and solutions. Macias promised to be a strong leader and rely on decades of experience in law as well as management positions to create an effective and efficient prosecutors’ office. Cain also promised strength, but said he would leverage his connections to other attorneys in the area to quickly fill vacancies in the office.

The candidate's ability to raise money ended up being a predictor of who would win. Macias raised $83,134, while Cain raised just $26,553.79. Macias spent much of his war chest on print ads – including by ads in the Las Cruces Bulletin. Cain spent much of his money on campaign signs, mailers and polling data.

But with the election now over, Macias looked ahead to January when he will assume office. He told the Bulletin that he planned to restructure the office, engage in an aggressive hiring plan and prepare for the upcoming legislative session.