Unfortunately for Baca, the Republican win did not ensure that he and the other Mexican priests would maintain control over these parishes. The election of 1872 set the stage for the Santa Fe Ring. The Santa Fe Ring was a group of influential and powerful elites in New Mexico who manipulated the communal land grant system in order to accumulate land. Although Baca hadYur predicted that the Mexicans would lose control over the parishes in southern New Mexico with the election of a Democrat, the loss of land occurred anyway due to the immense amount of power that the Santa Fe Ring held.