A Look Back at Elections 2006

Vida en el Valle, Commentary, Staff, Posted: Dec 28, 2006

Politics seemed to have a monopoly on the news in 2006. For good reason: There were mid-term elections that changed the political landscape in Washington, D.C., and a presidential election in Mexico that led to many headlines, political discussions and fidgeting on election night. These are the political stories that Vida en el Valle deemed to be the most relevant of 2006.

1. Mexicans Abroad Vote

When Mexican nationals who were eligible to vote in their country's presidential election but who lived outside Mexico — especially the estimated 4 million in the United States — won the right to cast their vote in 2005, expectations were that they would help determine President Vicente Fox's successor.

The thinking also was that presidential candidates would pay attention to the needs of Mexicans abroad. That euphoria died quickly when only 28,000 Mexican nationals in the U.S. cast a vote. The majority of those votes went to Felipe Calderón.

The problems were many, including a requirement that people be registered to vote, or obtain a voting card by going back to their home state. Then, requests for a ballot had to be made through registered mail, and votes had to be mailed back.

Sacramento activist Al Rojas called the voting for Mexicans abroad a "disaster."

It was "a huge failure,” he says. Of the nearly 40,000 people who registered, about 18 percent of their ballots were not sent by registered mail or were missing one of the requirements so Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) returned them.

In December, IFE released an extensive study of the voting process for Mexicans abroad and presented several recommendations, including allowing credentialing to take place outside Mexico.

2. Latinos Vote Democrat

When the dust had cleared in the November mid-term elections, voters — especially Latino voters who had given Republicans a greater share of their support in the past — gave Democrats a giant victory by giving them control of the House and the Senate.

Democrats Harry Reid of Nevada and Nancy Pelosi of California will become Senate Majority Leader and House Speaker, respectively, when Congress convenes next month.
Political experts pointed to the strength of Latino votes that represented about 8 percent of the vote, an increase of almost 2 million over 2004.

3. Schwarzenegger Re-elected

Early in his re-election campaign, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger raised the ire of Latinos by saying that Mexican Americans don't assimilate as quickly as other ethnic groups because of the close proximity of their home country. He had earlier praised the Minuteman Project, raising more indignation from Latinos.

Despite that controversy — and another one in which he was heard to call Assemblymember Bonnie García "hot" because of her Cuban ancestry — Schwarzenegger rolled to victory over state Treasurer Phil Angelides.

Helping the governor win re-election was a successful campaign that reached out to Latino voters through Spanish-language media.

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MEXICO 2006

The old refrain by former Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz, 'Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States' could very well sum up the kind of year that the country of 106 million had in 2006. A presidential election decided by the closest of margins, uprisings against an unpopular governor that turned tourist-friendly Oaxaca into a war zone, and drug traffickers running amok on the Texas-Mexico border — among other news events — were enough to fill volumes of newspaper pages.
These are some of the most important events that happened in Mexico in 2006.

1. Calderón Wins a Squeaker

Mexico gave political historians a sequel to Bush-Gore 2000 on July 2 when Felipe Calderón Hinojosa won the closest election in Mexican history over Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The final results were not official until Sept. 5 when the Federal Electoral Court declared the National Action Party (PAN) candidate a slim winner over the former Mexico City mayor.

The final verdict: Calderón, 15,000,284 or 35.89 percent; López Obrador, 14,756,350 or 35.51 percent. Roberto Madrazo Pintado of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) came in a distant third, showing the sharp fall from near complete control the PRI suffered in 2002 when PAN candidate Vicente Fox broke a the PRI's seven-decade hold on the presidency.

"I understand the complexity of the circumstances in which I am assuming the government of Mexico; however, I am used to overcoming obstacles," Calderón said before members of his conservative National Action Party (PAN), and foreign dignitaries when he took office on Dec. 1.
López Obrador, however, refused to give up and established a parallel government in which he named himself as president. Members of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) did their best to prevent Calderón from being sworn into office. The country's youngest-ever president was forced to enter the lower house of Congress through a back door and quickly take the oath of office.

2. AMLO Won't Go Away

Andrés Manuel López Obrador became the candidate who couldn't stop campaigning, even when the voting booths were shut down on July 2. Although he maintained a slight lead during the early returns, AMLO saw his lead slip as the votes from the northern part of the country showed up late with overwhelming support for Felipe Calderón.

López Obrador, whose main support came from the southern states, declared himself president and set up what he called a "legitimate" parallel government.

In a Sept. 10 speech, López Obrador said: "If one takes the movement to the bursting point, if the movement bursts, then it is violent. If one is too passive, nothing happens. It gets lazy, it sells out, it betrays itself. So, you can see how difficult it is to escape from this trap."

3. Headaches in Oaxaca

The uprising in Oaxaca began in July when about 70,000 public school teachers went on strike for pay raises. As the weeks and months rolled on, other residents – still upset over a 2004 gubernatorial election they suspected was stolen by Ulises Ruiz –joined in the uprising.

Gov. Ruiz canceled the popular Guelaguetza celebration over fear that tourists would be harmed. Downtown Oaxaca, a picturesque colonial city, was turned into a battlefield as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) burned vehicles and set up barricades.

Order was restored when President Vicente Fox sent in federal police in November.

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