Lately I’ve complained a lot about how frivolous some of the politics in New Mexico have been this year.
The governor’s race, for instance, often seems to have devolved into faux outrage from both sides over “gotcha” gaffes from their opponents (Democrats are portraying Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Pearce as being somewhere between George Wallace and David Duke because he recently use the phrase “the minorities” to describe, uh, minority groups) and hyperventilating overreaction to developments like Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s bringing back straight-party voting (“An attack on our democracy,” Pearce claimed).
But looking at recent silliness in the U.S. Senate race in our neighboring state of Texas, I’ve concluded that New Mexico has a long way to go in terms of frivolity.
Lone Star Republicans recently have attacked Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke — who’s trying to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz — for having been in a punk rock band in his younger days, tweeting out old photos of a long-haired O’Rourke with his band, Foss.
A punk rocker in the U.S. Senate! This cannot stand! Talk about attacks on our democracy. …
Maybe it’s because I’ve been involved with music in one way or another for most of my adult life, but attacks on politician-musicians always has stuck in my craw. The implication is that being a musician somehow makes you less serious, less credible, less mature.
But New Mexico has had at least a couple of guitar-slinging, high-ranking public officials.
The first politician I ever interviewed at the Roundhouse, back in 1980, was then-Lt. Gov. Roberto Mondragón, who had just released one of his albums of Spanish-language songs. Mondragón told me that he got so tired of people asking him in a condescending manner, “Where’s your guitar, Bob?” that he started bringing it to work. So when people asked him about his guitar,…
