Closer ties may have to wait for Ariz., Sonora
Mexican state to elect governor as economy consumes agendas
by Chris Hawley - Jun. 8, 2009 12:00 AM
Republic Mexico City Bureau .

MEXICO CITY - Relations between Arizona and Sonora are likely to remain close under Sonora's next governor, but efforts to build stronger ties could go on a back burner as migration slows and the neighboring states wrestle with their own economic problems, analysts say.

On July 5 Sonorans will choose the successor to Gov. Eduardo Bours, who must step down on Sept. 12 because of term limits. Polls show Alfonso ElĂ*as Serrano, a rancher and member of Bours' Institutional Revolutionary Party, leading by at least 10 percentage points.

Mexican issues were high on the agenda of then-Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who took office in 2003 during an illegal-immigration boom and a federal push for more border security following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Bours and Napolitano met frequently to discuss border security, and Napolitano often boasted of their close relationship.
But Gov. Jan Brewer, who took office in January after Napolitano became the U.S. Homeland Security secretary, has spent much of her time trying to solve a crushing budget shortfall caused by the U.S. economic slump, said Erik Lee, associate director of the North American Center for Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. "The state is absolutely obsessed with that right now, so it doesn't surprise me that she, and the state, hasn't really geared up its engagement with Mexico," Lee said.

Sonora, too, has had problems as U.S. companies reduce production at their Mexican assembly plants. Unemployment in the state rose to 5.44 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from 3.91 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

At the same time, one of the main priorities during Napolitano's time in office, illegal immigration, has been easing as Mexicans take a wait-and-see attitude toward the U.S. economic slowdown. Emigration from Mexico dropped 13.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same quarter of 2008, the Mexican census bureau reported this week.

"Both sides have been busy with other agendas," said Nicolás Pineda, a political-science professor at Sonora College. "The political campaigns (in Sonora) have reduced the contact with this new Arizona governor, but I don't think anything in the relationship has changed substantially."

Much of the cooperation between the two states is done by the Arizona-Mexico Commission, a body of experts that studies cross-border issues and makes recommendations to both governments, said Margie Emmermann, the group's executive director. The commission held its 50th anniversary meeting on Friday, with both Brewer and Bours attending.

The binational commission says it helped win millions of dollars in federal grants last year for improvements at the San Luis and Nogales border ports; repairs to a concrete wash in Nogales, Arizona; and a center for homeland-security studies at the University of Arizona.

It also sponsored seminars on buying real estate in Mexico, signed an agreement encouraging professional workers in Sonora to use a visa program to work in the United States, and sponsored an Arizona-Sonora football game for high-school students.

The two states also agreed to launch an electronic system for sharing information about health risks, like the H1N1 flu that swept across Mexico in April and May, and have started a program to try to attract manufacturers to the Arizona-Sonora region.

The three leading candidates in the Sonoran governor's race - ElĂ*as Serrano, Guillermo PadrĂ©s ElĂ*as of the National Action Party and Petra Santos of the Democratic Revolutionary Party - all say they will continue to communicate closely with Arizona officials, especially on economic development.

The National Action Party of PadrĂ©s ElĂ*as, who is running second in the polls, tends to be even more pro-American and pro-business than Bours' Institutional Revolutionary Party, Pineda said.

All three candidates have pledged to increase information-sharing with U.S. officials to fight drug traffickers.

ElĂ*as Serrano has pledged to lobby the Mexican government for improvements to the Nogales and Agua Prieta-Douglas border crossings, a freight-train connection between Yuma and San Luis Rio Colorado, and a new highway running along the Arizona border.

Padrés has promised passenger-train service between the Arizona border and the southern town of Navojoa.

www.azcentral.com