Thread: State senator seeks role as adviser to Fox

Cicero lawmaker's hat in Mexico race
State senator seeks role as adviser to Fox

By Oscar Avila, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Ray Long contributed to this report from Springfield
Published September 22, 2005


If state Sen. Martin Sandoval succeeds in his next election Saturday, he will serve in Mexico City as well as Springfield.

Sandoval is running for a seat on an advisory council created by Mexico President Vicente Fox in 2002 to incorporate Mexicans living in the United States into his government's policymaking.


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Sandoval would be the first elected official in the U.S. to serve on the advisory council. That raises the peculiar prospect of the Cicero Democrat offering policy advice in an official capacity to Mexican Cabinet members while creating laws in Illinois.

The possibility has some observers praising his vision while others blast his judgment, calling the potential moonlighting arrangement a conflict of interest.

As it turns out, no law or rule prohibits it, in Mexico or in Illinois. Mexican officials call it an honorary position.

Sandoval, who was born in the United States to Mexican immigrants, said he realizes that some might raise eyebrows at the thought of a man who swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution influencing policy in Mexico City.

But he views the advisory council as a historic opportunity to demonstrate the undeniable links between Mexicans in the United States and those in their homeland.

"Like many other first generation Mexican-Americans, I want to be involved in shaping the future of America," Sandoval said. "But I am also a product of two countries. I think I am a natural."

Fox acknowledged those links when he campaigned here in 2000. As president, he formed an Institute for Mexicans Abroad to coordinate all Mexican Cabinet agencies that serve immigrants in the United States.

As part of the institute, Fox also created an advisory council of 115 U.S.-based representatives to float policy suggestions to the Mexican government.

30 running in Illinois election

Mexicans here will choose six representatives from among 30 Illinois candidates this weekend at a Pilsen high school, while roughly 300 more hopefuls make their cases in other states.

Dante Gomez, the institute's Chicago coordinator, said presidential directives specify that the advisory council is not an official part of the government. Indeed, council members receive no salary and their selection is overseen by the advisory council itself, not Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute.

But the advisory council is part of the official flowchart of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad. And the Mexican government reimburses advisory council members for two annual meetings in Mexico City and two other meetings at various U.S. locations.

Mexico solicits private sponsorship for most of the reimbursement but government funds cover part of the expenses, Gomez said.

The advisory council members are generally ordinary citizens--teachers, social workers or the heads of immigrant advocacy organizations.

So Marcia Soto, a current advisory council member and part of the local electoral committee, said she was shocked when she scanned the list of candidates in Chicago.

`We checked the rules'

"When I heard [Sandoval's] name, I thought, `Is it the same one?' I couldn't believe it," she recalled. "I called Mexico. We checked all the rules. Go figure, there aren't any restrictions."

Ricardo Guerra, an official with the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, said he couldn't find any either. Nor, when asked by the Tribune, could staff members for the Illinois Senate or the attorney general's office find any obstacles to Sandoval's participation in the advisory council.

The dual involvement is a trend that worries some critics. Groups such as the Lombard-based Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration see Mexico's overtures as a backdoor maneuver to influence policy and a sign of disloyalty from Mexican-Americans.

Stanley Renshon, a political science professor at the City University of New York, said Sandoval's two posts would be fundamentally incompatible. Renshon has worked with the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that wants to limit immigration.

"The idea that somebody can hold two responsible positions in two governments at the same time is a psychological and political absurdity," said Renshon, who is scheduled to testify before Congress this fall about the dangers of dual citizenship. "It's worse than a conflict of interest. It's a conflict of community responsibility."

In his forthcoming book, "The 50% American," Renshon recounts that only a handful of U.S. elected officials have tried something similar. A city councilman in Hackensack, N.J., for example, ran unsuccessfully for a Senate seat in his native Colombia.

Sandoval sees no conflict

Sandoval shrugs off questions about conflicted loyalties.

"I see no conflict at any point. There are always people who will have questions," he said. "I have looked at the four corners of this. I see upside all over the place."

Sandoval said his participation is especially logical because a large share of his constituents were born in Mexico. More than 42 percent of Sandoval's Senate district is foreign-born, the second-highest rate in the state, according to Roosevelt University researchers.

Susan Gzesh, director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Chicago, said Mexican families already think of themselves as having feet in both countries. Now that the two nations are already entwined culturally and economically, Sandoval's efforts make sense as a way to promote political integration, she said.

Gzesh, a former legal adviser to the Mexican Embassy, noted that Sandoval is already having an impact in Mexico. When he promotes legislation that helps a Mexican immigrant in Cicero get health insurance, for example, that means more money that can go to his relatives back home.

"This makes a lot of sense to me," Gzesh said. "It might seem a little odd because we are used to politics being nicely sorted out, the way it looks on a map of the world. But that's not how people live their lives."

In fact, Sandoval said he hopes his efforts are just a start. Sandoval said he was inspired by a former boss, Valdus Adamkus of Hinsdale, who quit his job at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to pursue a successful run for president in his native Lithuania.

"Now, I don't aspire to be president of Mexico. Nevertheless, I do aspire to help my compatriots in the same kind of fashion and spirit," Sandoval said. "I think people are very excited that this could be history."

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30 in Illinois vie for 6 adviser seats

The elections for the advisory council of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Juarez High School, 2150 S. Laflin St.

To participate, voters must be 18 years old and have been born in Mexico or be the children of a Mexican-born parent. They must submit proof, such as a birth certificate and photo ID or a consulate-issued ID card called a matricula consular.

The following candidates are running for six spots in Illinois:

Karla Avila, Artemio Arreola, Javier Arriola, Salvador Balleo, Ezequiel Banda, Rodolfo Castellanos, Salvador Cervantes, Arcadio Delgado, Claudia de la Rosa, Luis Fernando de Leon, Jesus Estrada, Martha Espinoza, Norma Juarez, Omar Lopez, Maria Elena Martinez, Arnoldo Martinez, Cesar Miranda, Fabian Morales, Cuauhtemoc Morfin, Salvador Pedroza, Luis Pelayo, Analia Raquel Rodriguez, Greg Salgado, Javier Salas, Martin Sandoval, Maria Raquel Tobias, Elvia Torres, Jose Torres, Luz Maria Velazco, Carlos Villasenor.

He needs to put his plastic thinking cap over his head and sleep on it.

Sandoval, who was born in the United States to Mexican immigrants

Damned anchor baby leach. Let him go back and don't let the door hit him where it counts on the way out.

His first and only responsibility on accepting a state senator position is to uphold the constitution regardless of his ethnic background or heritage. In the here and now of his applicaton then acceptance of his job is without a doubt to uphold the constitution. He does not have the authority to define his position, he accepted a predefined position by the guidelines of our constitution and not upholding this oath not only makes him a man not of his word and without dignity or honor of his position is an act of treason. He deserves what the very law he swore to uphold deems for his actions. No leniancy whatsoever for a man who willingly betrays his oath of office and his constintuency, the buck stops here!!!!!!!