Ralph Arellanes, a board member of the Hispano Round Table of New Mexico, has submitted a column to newspapers across the state calling Gov. Bill Richardson a traitor. Basically, he said, Richardson is betraying Hispanics from Northern New Mexico by sending too much money and too many jobs to the south.
The Hispano Round Table of New Mexico has recently protested Richardson’s “ambitious agenda,” according to Arellanes.
Arellanes wrote that the funding recently approved for the Southwest Regional Spaceport at Upham “could have created thousands of high-paying jobs in Northern New Mexico.” Never mind that New Mexico State University estimates the spaceport will create thousands of high paying jobs in Southern New Mexico.
To be fair, Arellanes also complained about Richardson’s commuter rail project that will connect Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
But he also complained that “Gov. Richardson is sending the lion’s share of state monies and jobs to Southern New Mexico.” Sources from the south tell me northerners are accustomed to getting the majority of the money, so Arellanes is mad about the spaceport and other economic development projects along the border.
Arellanes wrote that he has good reason to expect more: “Isn’t Northern New Mexico where Richardson got his start? Where is his gratitude?”
The conclusion, Arellanes suggests, is that “Richardson works against Hispanos!!” If his evidence is that the governor is working to create jobs in the Las Cruces area, I doubt the Hispano Chamber of Commerce de Las Cruces would agree.
Arellanes, who is from Las Vegas, N.M., might do well to recall his own words in a 2000 speech: “This great land of enchantment should be equally enchanting for all.” I assume he meant that for all Hispanics, not just those living in Northern New Mexico.
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Then again, maybe southerners aren’t giving politicos from the north much of a reason to remember them.
There’s no chance someone from Doña Ana County will be elected to any statewide office this year, because none chose to run.
The state’s second-largest population center has a history of not running candidates in statewide races. We’ve had a couple of governors and other occasional candidates, but it’s infrequent at best.
State Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, said that’s largely because local politicians don’t want to move their families to Santa Fe, where the politics are different and homes are unreasonably expensive. Gutierrez, who used to be the state chair of her party, said she has considered running for land commissioner in the past, but “then I snap out of it.”
There may be another factor. State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, has sponsored legislation in the past that calls for the availability of both El Paso and Albuquerque television stations in Las Cruces as a way to increase local interest in state government. The Las Cruces and Clovis areas are the only two in the state that don’t receive Albuquerque stations, though Comcast subscribers in Las Cruces can get the Albuquerque ABC affiliate’s news on the public access channel.
Cervantes, who admits his future ambitions to hold a political office in Santa Fe or Washington, D.C., has a point. How many people here know the names of the state land commissioner and treasurer? How many even know the state auditor is an elected position?
At the same time, if people in Doña Ana County wanted to know more about state politics, they could read about it on the internet – like you’re doing right now.
A list of the state’s elected officials and another list of the candidates in the upcoming June primary election can be found by clicking on the links on the right side of this page.
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