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Mexico City, legislature seen as litmus test for change
The most significant race will be that for Mexico City mayor, technically the governor of Mexico's Federal District, which is a sizable but smaller area within the sprawling urban area.
The job is considered second in influence only to the president among political jobs. And for the first time, the mayor will be popularly elected instead of appointed by the president, which previously amounted to one PRI leader appointing another.
But the PRI, far from capitalizing on its position of dominance in the nation's capital, appears on the brink of losing control of the highly visible position.
Polls show the center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party's Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano, son of a former Mexican president, consistently leads the candidates of both the PRI and the conservative National Action Party. Cardenas still carries momentum from the 1988 presidential election, which his supporters maintain he won.
It doesn't stop there. The PRI is also considered to be on shaky ground in other races, and despite leading union endorsements, their block votes are no longer a certainty.
There's even talk the PRI could lose control of the lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies. That, of course, would mean an end to the tradition of a PRI-controlled legislature rubber-stamping the PRI president's wishes.
In all, 32 of the 128 Senate seats, all 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and six of the 31 state governors' offices are open, as well as the Mexico City Federal District.
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