In NM Perspective: Sarah Palin, Joe Apache and Lori Montgomery
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A key talking point for boosters of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is her executive experience.
By now we've all heard the bio. Before becoming Governor of Alaska in January of last year, Palin served as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (1996-2002). Wasilla is unarguably a small town. According to the official city website, the population is 6,715 (not counting the moose).
By New Mexico standards, Wasilla would rank behind Truth or Consequences, Aztec, Bernalillo, Bloomfield, Corrales, Anthony and Shiprock. It's about the same size as Raton. (NM Cities & Towns)
Raton's mayor is Joe Apache and T or C's is Lori Montgomery. Could the ascension of Palin signal the rise of more small town mayors? Might we see gubernatorial runs by Apache or Montgomery in the future? You heard it here first. Don't say we didn't tell you!
(See this delightful Truth or Consequences tourism video, starring Mayor Montgomery.)
More fascinating census factoids: The population of the entire state of Alaska is 670,053. The population of NM's Bernalillo County plus Rio Rancho is 698,371.
UPDATE: And now we have a video tour of Wasilla, Alaska, courtesy of Alex Sheshunoff at Slate. Disappointing to say the least. It's not the Cicely we came to know and love on "Northern Exposure" -- (which was really shot in Roslyn, Washington.) I vote for Janine Turner (Maggie O'Connell) to play Palin in the upcoming ABC docudrama, "Recount 2008." Janine's a righty too.
By now we've all heard the bio. Before becoming Governor of Alaska in January of last year, Palin served as Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska (1996-2002). Wasilla is unarguably a small town. According to the official city website, the population is 6,715 (not counting the moose).
By New Mexico standards, Wasilla would rank behind Truth or Consequences, Aztec, Bernalillo, Bloomfield, Corrales, Anthony and Shiprock. It's about the same size as Raton. (NM Cities & Towns)
Raton's mayor is Joe Apache and T or C's is Lori Montgomery. Could the ascension of Palin signal the rise of more small town mayors? Might we see gubernatorial runs by Apache or Montgomery in the future? You heard it here first. Don't say we didn't tell you!
(See this delightful Truth or Consequences tourism video, starring Mayor Montgomery.)
More fascinating census factoids: The population of the entire state of Alaska is 670,053. The population of NM's Bernalillo County plus Rio Rancho is 698,371.
UPDATE: And now we have a video tour of Wasilla, Alaska, courtesy of Alex Sheshunoff at Slate. Disappointing to say the least. It's not the Cicely we came to know and love on "Northern Exposure" -- (which was really shot in Roslyn, Washington.) I vote for Janine Turner (Maggie O'Connell) to play Palin in the upcoming ABC docudrama, "Recount 2008." Janine's a righty too.
Four of the last five presidents were governors first. NM's Governor Richardson has a 56% job approval rating. AK's Governor Palin has an 86% job approval rating (the highest in the country).
Palin canned a $400 million bridge that was not needed. Richardson built a $400 million train that was not needed.
Richardson has payed people off left and right for contributing to his campaigns by appointing them to various high-paying government positions, and even creating new positions to accomodate them (the Albuquerque Journal started to cover this after the last election, but the subject got silenced - in fact, almost any allegations against Richardson seem to get stamped out pretty quickly). Palin has been fearless in confronting corruption, especially in her own party, and has strongly encouraged the current investigations into allegations against her.
Overall, your comparison is incredibly one-sided, not to mention ridiculous considering you are writing this from a state who's own Governor was running for President even though the state doesn't even have the population of the metropolitan area just outside of its own borders (El Paso / Juarez) - when did you mock Richardson in this way?
I was not scoffing at the size of Wasilla! I was merely putting it into a New Mexico context. No one else has touched on this angle with regard to Palin’s “experience.” It interested me. Thanks for your interest.
Okay. You’re right. I didn’t mention Palin’s election as President of the Alaska Conference of Mayors. However, I did not neglect to do so because I found it somehow inconvenient -- just irrelevant. For that matter, I also neglected to mention that Eddie Trujillo of Las Vegas is currently President of the New Mexico Municipal League – and Dolores Connor of Santa Fe is the President Elect. I have now corrected these omissions. Their respective potentials need to be elevated substantially.
Many previous US presidents have been governors. No argument there. And Palin has a higher approval rating in her state after 18 months in office than Richardson has in NM after 68. Okay. But then again, he was elected with 56% of the vote and got re-elected with 69%. Palin “only” got elected with 48%. So what? She’s not running against Richardson for governor of Alaska or New Mexico.
I’m not making a case for or against Bill Richardson. Besides he’s not a candidate anymore. Yes, it's true he was until recently running for one of the two highest offices of the land. And it's true that like Palin is doing now, he touted his resume. In Richardson’s case, he had been governor of an admittedly “small” state -- but for over 5 years. What you conveniently neglect to mention is that he also served 15 years in Congress, as well as serving as Ambassador to the U.N. and Secretary of Energy. Talk about ridiculous comparisons.
Palin’s claim that she said “no thanks” to the “bridge to nowhere” has been discredited. In a questionnaire in the Anchorage Daily News (10/22/06), then-gubernatorial candidate Palin answered the question, "Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?" by writing: "Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later.
And consider this:
Link
Yes, Palin originally supported the bridge. Then, as the article you linked to clearly states, she decided to cancel the project because of rising cost estimates. Had the costs not gone up significantly, it would have been fine. The increased cost, however, was unjustifiable, and the money was used instead for other transportation improvement projects.
In the same way, if the original cost estimates for the Rail Runner held true, it would have been fine. But the cost estimates have continued to rise, and rather than stopping before things got out of hand, Richardson has continued to push it through at the cost of other transportation improvement projects.
As you point out, Richardson was elected with 56% of the vote. He was reelected on with 69% against a weak opponent, and is now back to a 56% approval rating after people have seen him in action.
And yes, Palin was elected by only 48%, against a popular former governor. However, since seeing her in action, her approval ratings have skyrocketed.
You're right, she is not running against Richardson, I am just putting some of her other achievements in NM context.
To characterize Democrat Tony Knowles as a "popular" former governor is a real stretch. At the "height" of his popularity in 1998, he attained a spectacular 51% in his re-election bid against a GOP opposition so bitterly divided that a "write-in" Republican finished second. Now that's what I would call "weak" opposition.
You are correct in saying Palin canceled the bridge project. But she kept the money and spent millions of federal dollars to build a linking road to the town for which the original "bridge to no where" was planned. Maybe if she had really said "no thank" to the Congress and returned the dough, we could have gotten the money for New Mexico and used it for the Rail Runner!
You certainly are giving an inordinate amount of weight to an early job approval rating. The real test, of course, is whether an incumbent's approval rating has any staying power. George Bush once was at 88%. Now he's below 30% His dad hit 91% and couldn't re-elected. By this gauge, Richardson has held up quite well actually.
Here's another NM perspective for you: While Palin sold her state's "luxury jet" (bought for $2.7 million) because it was "over the top", Richardson bought one (for safety reasons, or so he claimed) for more than double that - $5.45 million. Keep in mind that Alaska is well over 5 times the size of New Mexico and depends heavily on aircraft for access to many towns within the state.