I don't know of any regionals hiring street captains right now...maybe Pinnacle? You certainly have no chance of getting hired into the left seat at ExpressJet or Skywest. Those were probably his only two choices because they are some of the best paying with the opportunity for upgrade. Air Wisconsin has great pay and work rules, but their movement has been slow. If you live in New Mexico I would think Skywest would be one of your best options. I don't know for sure but I am willing to bet a Skywest driver can come on here and tell you. Outside of them I would think Mesa is your other option, and you are 150% correct for staying away from them. They will make your life a living hell with the way they abuse their pilots. Researching work rules and contracts is tough, you usually just have to use forums like this so you have started off on the right foot. Like I said earlier, if you want to move beyond the regionals, then you most certainly want to look into somewhere with fast upgrade time that has good workrules. I would say Skywest, Chautaqua, or ExpressJet. You can find the pilot domiciles for each of those companies on this site
www.airlinepilotcentral.com under the airline profiles. Look under regional for Chautaqua, and major-lcc for ExpressJet and Skywest.