{"id":19970,"date":"2010-07-28T14:06:17","date_gmt":"2010-07-28T20:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=19970"},"modified":"2010-07-28T14:34:07","modified_gmt":"2010-07-28T20:34:07","slug":"meet-new-mexico%e2%80%99s-first-female-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/07\/meet-new-mexico%e2%80%99s-first-female-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet New Mexico\u2019s first female governor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Soledad \u201cLala\u201d Ch\u00e1vez Chac\u00f3n <\/p><\/div>\n

I am among those who have written that whoever wins the current governor\u2019s race will be the state\u2019s first woman to serve as governor, and that if Republican Susana Martinez<\/a> wins, she\u2019ll be the first female Hispanic governor in the nation.<\/p>\n

Turns out that\u2019s not accurate because of a two-week period in 1924 when then-Secretary of State Soledad \u201cLala\u201d Ch\u00e1vez Chac\u00f3n<\/a> served as acting governor.<\/p>\n

A blog posting<\/a> on Ms. Magazine\u2019s Web site gives us the details:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1924, a constellation of events \u2013 including her ability and readiness \u2013 provided the opportunity for Chac\u00f3n to act as governor of New Mexico. Governor James Hinkle was set to attend the Democratic National Convention in Washington, D.C., when Lieutenant Governor Jos\u00e9 Baca unexpectedly died. As secretary of state, Chac\u00f3n was next in line to be acting governor. Many men sought to block Chac\u00f3n\u2019s appointment, but supporters stepped forward to assure it. Though she was not in a position to dictate policy, she was the state\u2019s leader for two weeks, during which time many people made their way to the capital in Santa Fe to acknowledge and congratulate Governor Chac\u00f3n.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chac\u00f3n, according to the article, served two terms as secretary of state and was then elected state representative in 1934. She died in 1936 after complications from surgery.<\/p>\n

No woman has been elected to be governor of New Mexico since, though Diane Denish<\/a> has also served more than once as acting governor during the Richardson years. And, as far as I can tell, no Hispanic woman has been elected governor of any state in the nation before. So, as far as I can tell, it\u2019s still accurate to say that whoever wins the current race will be the first woman elected to be governor of New Mexico (even if she\u2019s not the first woman to serve in that capacity), and that, if Martinez is elected, she will be the first Hispanic woman to be elected governor of any state in the nation.<\/p>\n

However, Chac\u00f3n was breaking barriers long before Denish and Martinez were even born.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Democracy for New Mexico, whose blog posting<\/a> brought the issue to my attention.<\/p>\n

A prior version of this posting failed to point out that Denish has served more than once as acting governor during the Richardson years.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: I am among those who have written that whoever wins the current governor\u2019s race will be the state\u2019s first woman to serve as governor, and that if Republican Susana Martinez wins, she\u2019ll be the first female Hispanic governor in the nation. That’s not accurate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-19970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19970","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=19970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}