If politicians did not exist I probably would be a big fan of professional wrestling. But politicians are so much more colorful and comic.
It’s probably my upbringing. I grew up in Chicago, was an avid reader of Mike Royko’s columns and covered city hall as a college-student reporter for a community newspaper. In the years when the Sox and the Bears were losing it was always entertaining to watch City Hall. You never knew what Mayor Daley was going to say, or which alderman or ex-governor would be indicted next.
So I feel right at home in New Mexico. Politicians here are just as corrupt as the ones in Illinois but have a banana-republic obviousness that I find endearing.
Typical New Mexico voters
The latest reality show is the border town of Sunland Park, where a candidate for mayor was arrested for extortion after he threatened to release a video of his opponent getting a lap dance. The extortionist was elected mayor, but under the terms of his bond is not permitted to set foot in city hall or talk to city employees. He plans to take the oath of office by phone. Other city employees are facing charges of voter fraud, including bringing Texas residents across the border to vote. The last mayor of Sunland Park has not been seen since he admitted that he was drunk when he signed a major city contract. City council meetings there have been compared to the Jerry Springer show.
In Columbus, another border town, much of the city government is in jail for smuggling guns to a Mexican drug cartel. Perhaps it’s payback for Pancho Villa’s raid in 1916.
One of the state’s elected public utility commissioners resigned in a plea bargain after he was charged with campaign fund violations, embezzlement and a massive spending spree with a government gasoline credit card. Auditors got suspicious when he bought huge quantities of gas and charged a chimichanga at a convenience store. The commissioner’s defense was that he has a drug problem (and the munchies, apparently). Earlier, another commissioner was convicted of assault after she attacked a romantic rival with a rock. The courts had to remove her from office after her conviction because she wanted to continue serving until she actually began her prison sentence. You can’t make this stuff up.
When the leader of the state senate was convicted in a kickback scheme a few years ago, local politicians held a going-away party for him. Months later the National Hispanic Cultural Center removed his name from a building dedicated in his honor. The move was controversial because the senator had done a lot for the community before the feds caught him.
New Mexico’s tiny population (about two million in the entire state) makes government accessible in a small-town kind of way. My state legislator answers emails personally. Everybody who has lived here for a generation or two seems to know everybody else and many of them are related. Last year I had a pleasant chat at a social function with a former state official who’s awaiting trial for misuse of federal funds, and later learned that one of my neighbors was on the grand jury that indicted her.
This community feeling may be why there seems to be a higher tolerance for official misconduct here than in most places, even Chicago. The standard questionnaire the Albuquerque Journal issues to candidates for office routinely asks if they have been convicted of a crime. Hardly a week goes by without news of a government official being arrested (often for drunk driving) and an inordinate number of government employees are on paid leave awaiting criminal charges.
New Mexico’s spirit of tolerance and forgiveness extends to dead criminals as well as living ones. Former Gov. Bill Richardson’s last act as he left office was to consider a retroactive pardon for Billy the Kid. After extensive public discussion, including comments by descendants of the sheriff who shot Billy in 1881, the Gov decided against the pardon. But it was a near thing.
That’s how it is in New Mexico and I’m enjoying the show.
My favorite spectator sport
If politicians did not exist I probably would be a big fan of professional wrestling. But politicians are so much more colorful and comic.
It’s probably my upbringing. I grew up in Chicago, was an avid reader of Mike Royko’s columns and covered city hall as a college-student reporter for a community newspaper. In the years when the Sox and the Bears were losing it was always entertaining to watch City Hall. You never knew what Mayor Daley was going to say, or which alderman or ex-governor would be indicted next.
So I feel right at home in New Mexico. Politicians here are just as corrupt as the ones in Illinois but have a banana-republic obviousness that I find endearing.
Typical New Mexico voters
The latest reality show is the border town of Sunland Park, where a candidate for mayor was arrested for extortion after he threatened to release a video of his opponent getting a lap dance. The extortionist was elected mayor, but under the terms of his bond is not permitted to set foot in city hall or talk to city employees. He plans to take the oath of office by phone. Other city employees are facing charges of voter fraud, including bringing Texas residents across the border to vote. The last mayor of Sunland Park has not been seen since he admitted that he was drunk when he signed a major city contract. City council meetings there have been compared to the Jerry Springer show.
In Columbus, another border town, much of the city government is in jail for smuggling guns to a Mexican drug cartel. Perhaps it’s payback for Pancho Villa’s raid in 1916.
One of the state’s elected public utility commissioners resigned in a plea bargain after he was charged with campaign fund violations, embezzlement and a massive spending spree with a government gasoline credit card. Auditors got suspicious when he bought huge quantities of gas and charged a chimichanga at a convenience store. The commissioner’s defense was that he has a drug problem (and the munchies, apparently). Earlier, another commissioner was convicted of assault after she attacked a romantic rival with a rock. The courts had to remove her from office after her conviction because she wanted to continue serving until she actually began her prison sentence. You can’t make this stuff up.
When the leader of the state senate was convicted in a kickback scheme a few years ago, local politicians held a going-away party for him. Months later the National Hispanic Cultural Center removed his name from a building dedicated in his honor. The move was controversial because the senator had done a lot for the community before the feds caught him.
New Mexico’s tiny population (about two million in the entire state) makes government accessible in a small-town kind of way. My state legislator answers emails personally. Everybody who has lived here for a generation or two seems to know everybody else and many of them are related. Last year I had a pleasant chat at a social function with a former state official who’s awaiting trial for misuse of federal funds, and later learned that one of my neighbors was on the grand jury that indicted her.
This community feeling may be why there seems to be a higher tolerance for official misconduct here than in most places, even Chicago. The standard questionnaire the Albuquerque Journal issues to candidates for office routinely asks if they have been convicted of a crime. Hardly a week goes by without news of a government official being arrested (often for drunk driving) and an inordinate number of government employees are on paid leave awaiting criminal charges.
New Mexico’s spirit of tolerance and forgiveness extends to dead criminals as well as living ones. Former Gov. Bill Richardson’s last act as he left office was to consider a retroactive pardon for Billy the Kid. After extensive public discussion, including comments by descendants of the sheriff who shot Billy in 1881, the Gov decided against the pardon. But it was a near thing.
That’s how it is in New Mexico and I’m enjoying the show.
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