{"id":187,"date":"2006-03-28T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-28T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/03\/justice-for-all-hispanics-or-only-those-from-the-north-plus-why-don%e2%80%99t-crucens-seek-statewide-offices\/"},"modified":"2006-03-28T00:05:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-28T06:05:00","slug":"justice-for-all-hispanics-or-only-those-from-the-north-plus-why-don%e2%80%99t-crucens-seek-statewide-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/03\/justice-for-all-hispanics-or-only-those-from-the-north-plus-why-don%e2%80%99t-crucens-seek-statewide-offices\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice for all Hispanics, or only those from the north? Plus, why don\u2019t Crucens seek statewide offices?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The Hispano Round Table of New Mexico has recently protested Richardson\u2019s \u201cambitious agenda,\u201d according to Arellanes.<\/p>\n

Arellanes wrote that the funding recently approved for the Southwest Regional Spaceport at Upham \u201ccould have created thousands of high-paying jobs in Northern New Mexico.\u201d Never mind that New Mexico State University estimates the spaceport will create thousands of high paying jobs in Southern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Arellanes also complained about Richardson\u2019s commuter rail project that will connect Santa Fe and Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

But he also complained that \u201cGov. Richardson is sending the lion\u2019s share of state monies and jobs to Southern New Mexico.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Arellanes wrote that he has good reason to expect more: \u201cIsn\u2019t Northern New Mexico where Richardson got his start? Where is his gratitude?\u201d<\/p>\n

The conclusion, Arellanes suggests, is that \u201cRichardson works against Hispanos!!\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Arellanes, who is from Las Vegas, N.M., might do well to recall his own words in a 2000 speech: \u201cThis great land of enchantment should be equally enchanting for all.\u201d I assume he meant that for all Hispanics, not just those living in Northern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Then again, maybe southerners aren\u2019t giving politicos from the north much of a reason to remember them.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no chance someone from Do\u00f1a Ana County will be elected to any statewide office this year, because none chose to run.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s second-largest population center has a history of not running candidates in statewide races. We\u2019ve had a couple of governors and other occasional candidates, but it\u2019s infrequent at best.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Joni Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, said that\u2019s largely because local politicians don\u2019t 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 \u201cthen I snap out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019t receive Albuquerque stations, though Comcast subscribers in Las Cruces can get the Albuquerque ABC affiliate\u2019s news on the public access channel.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

At the same time, if people in Do\u00f1a Ana County wanted to know more about state politics, they could read about it on the internet \u2013 like you\u2019re doing right now.<\/p>\n

A list of the state\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Keep sending comments. I\u2019m working on a comments policy that will be posted soon but, in the meantime, here are a couple of ground rules: No nasty personal attacks and no free campaigning.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading today. Come back tomorrow for more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}