Mary Salas

Castelum campaigned as a conservative opposed to "big government" and "political correctness", and an enemy of the organization Planned Parenthood. Gastelum also campaigned against the city's status as a sanctuary city. Anti-muslim tweets by Gastelum from 2017, which he refused to apologize for, attracted attention. The tweet in question read, "Let's pressure our legislature to create a list of so-called #MuslimBan to prevent #SubHuman #Scum from #USA to #MAGA". Of those challenging Salas, Gastelum had the strongest name recognition, largely due to the controversy that this 2017 tweet had generated.

Mary Salas was sworn-in as the first Latina Mayor of Chula Vista, California in December 9, 2014. She was sworn-in for a second term in December 2018.

In 2012 Salas ran again for election to the Chula Vista City Council, representing District 4. In the November runoff election she defeated Linda Wagner, 57.6% to 42.3%.

Mary Casillas Salas is an American politician from Chula Vista, California. She is a former California Assembly member who represented the 79th Assembly District from 2006 to 2010. She ran for the California State Senate in 2010 but lost. In 2012 she was elected to the Chula Vista City Council, a position she previously held from 1996 to 2004. She was elected Mayor of the city of Chula Vista in 2014.

Salas joined the Sweetwater Authority Board of Directors in 2006.

Salas was elected to the California State Assembly in 2006, defeating Jean Roesch. She represented the 79th district which includes the communities of National City, Coronado, Imperial Beach and parts of Chula Vista and San Diego. Salas was appointed Chair of the Committee on Veterans Affairs in 2007. She also served on the following standing committees: Jobs, Economic Development, and the Economy; Water, Parks and Wildlife; and the Committee on Health. She was re-elected in 2008. In 2010 she campaigned for California State Senate but lost narrowly to Juan Vargas.

Salas was term-limited out of the city council in 2004, being barred from serving more than two terms consecutively.

Salas was a mamber of the South Bay Irrigation District from 2004 through 2006.

In 2002, Salas ran in the open-race for mayor against fellow city councilmember and political ally Steve Padilla, but lost. Salas had placed a narrow first in the first-round of the election, but had failed to receive a full majority of the vote, thus triggering a runoff. She lost the runoff.

Voter turnout was significantly lower in the 2002 election than it had been in the previous two elections.

Having run unsuccessfully in 2002, Salas made her second attempt at the mayoralty of Chula Vista in the 2014 election. This was the first mayoral election to take place in Chula Vista following the passage of a 2012 proposition which amended the city charter to require mandatory candidate runoffs, meaning that, even if a candidate obtains more than 50% of the vote in the primary, a second round of the election would be held between the top-two finishers. Municipal elections in California are officially non-partisan.

In 2001, Salas was early to call for San Diego Unified Port District Board member David Malcolm to resign over his consulting contract with Duke Energy, which he would ultimately do in early 2002.

In 1996, Salas was elected as a member of city council in Chula Vista. Salas became the first Latina elected to the Chula Vista City Council, and second person of latinx descent on the City Council, after Steve Padilla. In 2000, as an incumbent, Salas was re-elected as a member of Chula Vista City Council. As a councilwoman, she chaired the University Working Group to establish a higher education center in the region and co-chaired the Blue Ribbon Committee for the "San Diego County Preschool for All." She gained a reputation as a member who was willing to speak her mind.

The election was an open-race, since incumbent mayor Cheryl Cox was term-limited. There were two other candidates running. One was Jerry Rindone, who had been a member of the Chula Vista City Council from 1990 through 1998 and again from 2000 through 2008, as well as the vice chairman of Metropolitan Transit System, a member of the San Diego County Board of Education from 2008 through 2012, and president of Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce in 2013. The other was Pamela Bensoussan, who had been a member of the Chula Vista City Council since 2008.

Salas' father, is one of 9 children of Felix and Urbana Casillas, who once lived in the La Punta adobe, after moving to the United States, through El Paso, from Mexico. Salas was born in 1948 in Chula Vista.