With the 2015 election campaign season now on the horizon, a large field of contenders has emerged to chase the seat as Chapala’s next mayor, with a single female standing out in the line-up.
Eight potential candidates are already on the stump to lock in the ballot slots that will be defined by February 5 according to nomination procedures specified within each political party.
Among them is Alicia Córdoba López, registered as a distaff postulant under the banner of the Citizens Movement (MC), an upstart political wing noted for opening its doors to independent candidates as well as rank and file affiliates. 
The 49-year-old working mother of six teenage and adult offspring is well known locally as a long-time activist involved in women’s issues and environmental causes, including a two-year stint as president of the Amigos del Lago association.
At a press conference she chaired this week, Córdova underlined that she was motivated to jump into the pre-campaign fray precisely because of MC’s receptivity to outsiders and guidelines that promise democratic selection of a candidate. But she is up against the challenge of gaining favor over three other rivals, all males: Rafael Aguilar Dueñez, Rafael Flores Ibarra and the acknowledged front-runner Moisés Alejandro Anaya Aguilar.
MC has beccome a rising force on the local scene since candidate Francisco Díaz Ochoa garnered enough votes in the last electoral round to win a seat on the Chapala city council. While still acting the party’s local coordinator, he is now on leave of absence from his elective post to run for a seat in the federal Chamber of Deputies.
According to Díaz MC Chapala currently has around 700 active members registered on its rolls, enough to put a serious chink in the ballot count for major party candidates.
Sergio Gutiérrez Tejeda and Juan Carlos Pelayo Pelayo are registered for a face-off to gain the mayoral candidacy for the National Action Party (PAN), Chapala’s current ruling party.
Vying for the nod by National Regeneration Movement (Morena) are Mario Ferrer Villafuentes and Jesús Hernández Hernández.
Meanwhile, the selection of a unity candidate for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)-Mexico Green Party (PVEM) alliance remains up in the air, now two weeks past the official December 28 registration deadline.
After many months of internecine wrangling, a long list of aspirants has been whittled down to Javier Degollado González, Oscar España Ramos, Rodolfo Díaz Durán, in the running on behalf of PRI, and Juan de Dios García Velazco standing up for PVEM.
State level party heavies are reportedly intervening to forge consensus and avoid a pre-campaign battle that would only widen the breach between PRI Chapala’s opposing factions.