In New Mexico, Republican Susana Martinez has become the first Hispanic woman to be nominated by a major political party to run for the governorship of any state. If that weren't enough, New Mexican Diane Denish ran unopposed on the Democrat ticket, guaranteeing that New Mexico will elect their first female governor this year.
In California, Republican Meg Whitman handily won the nomination of her party to run for Governor of California, and will run against, of all people, Democrat Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown, a longtime politician who has held many offices in California, including being Governor himself from 1975 to 1983. Carly Fiorina beat all challengers by a mile to win the nomination of the Republican party to run for Senator against long time Democrat politician Barbera Boxer, who likely will face the first tough challenge of her political career.
And in somewhat of a surprise, TEA Party candidate Sharron Angle has become the conservative choice to fight Harry Reid's uphill battle to retain his Senate seat in Nevada, a state that has been severely damaged by the economic meltdown, and is seeing little, if any, relief from the failed policies of Democrats in Washington, D.C. In fact, it was probably failed economic policies, more than anything, that drove Angle to victory.
It is also interesting to note that both Martinez and Fiorina were endorsed by former Alaska Governor and Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It would appear that despite mainstream media bias, and the left's general derogatory attitude towards Palin, her appeal to actual American voters remains undiminished.
It's been a while since states like California, Nevada, and New Mexico, not to mention states all across American, have had such a clear single issue driving their politics: Jobs.
At this moment in history, there is no greater indication of the failed policies of the past than the current high unemployment rate. Decades of fiscal mismanagement, confiscatory taxation, over-regulation, and an an attitude of political entitlement have led to our current crisis, and it's a crisis that just doesn't seem to be going away, as long as unemployment remains at today's high levels.
The people of the United States are ready for a massive shift in political ideology, and apparently for a massive shift away from the "old boy network" which has run policy for as long as anyone can remember. If modern politics matters, and some would debate that issue, then there are no more clearer choices than what are being presented in California, Nevada, and New Mexico today.
California was once the "land of opportunity" for millions who traveled there during the dust bowl era. It seemed at one time the state had limitless potential. Agriculture, mining, petroleum, technology, and to lesser extents timber and manufacturing, all seemed to hold the promise of economic bounty for generations to come. California's politicians, however, seemed to have other ideas, and they have turned a once thriving state into a mass of job killing regulations and incentive killing social programs that fundamentally transformed the state form one of the richest in the nation, to one that is the most threatened by massive debt. Perhaps the people of California have finally figured out that driving jobs away, putting more people on welfare, and taxing the hell out of those left who still have a little money, is not the way to greatness. Meg Whitman, as former CEO of Ebay, and Carly Fiorina, who once ran Hewlett-Packard, are both real-wold job creators, exactly the opposite of their opponents, who have made their living as politicians for as far back as almost anyone can remember. There can be no clearer choice between real "new thinking", and the failed policies of the past.
Nevada, which for much of the 1980's and 1990's supported massive growth, with cities such as Las Vegas and Henderson sporting the distinction of being the fastest growing in the nation, has utterly collapsed. It would seem Nevada is a victim of it's own success, as droves of Californians fleeing increased taxation, joblessness, and inflated property values, moved to Nevada, and then brought their ideologies with them. Is it any wonder, then, that after a couple of decades of transplanted California voters instilling California's failing policies onto once libertarian Nevada, that Nevada would then suffer similar economic issues? With unemployment higher than the national average, a state government that has grown entirely out of proportion to the mostly rural state (there are almost three times as many people in the Las Vegas Metro area than in the entire rest of the state, combined) and an inflated housing market that more and more mimicked California's as more Californians moved in, Nevada has some big problems. Couple that with an industry, gambling, that relies almost entirely upon discretionary income, which has been in short supply lately, and Nevada has problems. There is nothing like financial crisis to bring people home again..and it would seem with Sharron Angle being chosen to potentially upset long time politico Harry Reid's apple cart, there could actually be "change" in the desert wind.
New Mexico, with it's joblessness and nearly billion-dollar state budget shortfall, is still not in nearly the same dire straits as either Nevada or California, however, there is obvious signals that the state could be teetering on the brink if the direction of state is not changed towards a more fiscally balanced program. Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat who is "term limited out" and cannot run again, is hoping to hand the reins of state to Diane Denish, who has been Richardson's lieutenant governor for nearly 8 years, has a tough legacy to live down. Richardson, after all, inherited a state budget surplus, and promptly went to work figuring out how to spend it. Along came projects like a state-funded train that only travels between Santa Fe (the seat of New Mexico government, imagine that!) and Albuquerque, the largest city in the state, which set the state back a cool billion dollars (and at last report was losing an additional $16,000 a day), and a "SpacePort" that "promised" to launch New Mexico into the forefront of high tech space travel, but which in reality is mostly known for being at the end of a dirt road, and for launching the ashes of Star Trek's "Scotty", James Doohan, towards space, only to have them crash back to earth, where they were lost for some time in the New Mexico desert. Add to that Bill Richardson's at least 40 percent growth in state government, his support of the Hollywood movie industry with taxpayer dollars, and his "Pit Rule", an unnecessarily strict, not to mention expensive, environmental restriction and fee program which succeeded in driving away the one industry that most benefited New Mexico's economy, natural gas, at the very same time the economy worldwide was imploding. So much so, that New Mexico was the only natural gas producing state in the nation that did not see an increase in production in 2009..
It's no wonder Bill Richardson is spending so much time out of state, on "business travel". He's trying to stay out of Diane Denish's way so she can attempt to distance herself from Richardson's irresponsible and failed policies, trying to pretend she was nowhere in sight when Richardson was squandering the state's money for the last eight years, but that somehow, all of a sudden, she's the political "outsider" who can step in and fix Richardson's bungling of his responsibility. Sure she is.
Susana Martinez, on the other hand, is a newcomer to the stage of state politics, and appears to have the conservative ideas that can change New Mexico's direction for the better, if she is able to follow through on them, by reducing job-killers like over-regulation and high taxation on industry, and at the same time halt the wild spending spree instigated by Bill Richardson and his willing cohorts in the New Mexico legislature.
Perhaps not only are the people of the United States tired of politics as usual, perhaps they are getting tired of the same old MEN politicians. I for one am "all for" allowing the other gender a chance to make the changes that this nation needs to make. Perhaps women, for a change, will not be swayed by the culture of government, which seems lately to turn a lot of men into self-serving shadows of the creatures who we saw during their campaigns, and whom seem to leave their promises in the dust when they hit their respective state capitals, or the city limits of Washington, D.C.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment