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This year more than 500 applicants expressed their intention to become an independent candidate. However, only 121 of them obtained the registration: 21 for federal deputy and the rest for a municipality or local legislator in 15 states.
Nuevo León heads the list of independent winners with two possible victories: a mayor (César Valdés Martínez Valdés - García) and a governor (Jaime Rodriguez Calderón- Nuevo León), a former member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Of the 889 municipalities and 16 districts in Mexico City at stake, independent candidates won in only three of them: Alfonso Martínez, former PAN member, candidate for mayor of Morelia, Michoacán; José Alberto Méndez, known as "El Bronco of Guanajuato", candidate for mayor of Comonfort, and Pedro Kumamoto, a 25-year-old candidate who won a seat in Jalisco's District X, which encompasses Guadalajara's affluent suburb of Zapopan.
With a US$14,000 war chest financed with small donations he limited to no more than US$450, Kumamoto, of Japanese ancestry, brushed aside rivals from well-financed and entrenched political parties.
Another prominent independent is Manuel Clouthier, who won a federal Congress seat in Sinaloa. Clouthier was once a member of the National Action Party and his father ran for president under the same banner.
