JEREZ, MEXICO — A farmer from Northern California hopes to claim the mayoralty of this impoverished town in today's closely watched election and, in so doing, open a new chapter in Mexican politics.
Andres Bermudez, the "Tomato King" from Winters, is favored to be among the first emigrants elected to local office since the state of Zacatecas last year eased candidacy rules for natives with dual citizenship or U.S. residency.
The Zacatecas elections take place as other states consider similar laws and politicians across the country try to reach out to emigrants, an increasingly important political and economic force.
On June 15, President Vicente Fox proposed a law to allow Mexicans in the United States to cast absentee ballots in federal elections. Currently, Mexicans with dual citizenship or residency must be in the country to vote.
If passed, the measure could have a significant impact on the 2006 presidential election. It could enfranchise a potential electorate of nearly 10 million in the U.S., half of whom are legal residents or American citizens. The rest are undocumented.
Bermudez said his victory would "open the doors" for numerous other Zacatecans living in the United States who are thinking about running for office. "I myself know 26 guys ready to come back and run for mayor in towns across Zacatecas. But all are afraid that what happened to me could happen to them," Bermudez said.
The candidate was referring to 2001, when he won the Jerez mayoralty only to be disqualified by the federal election commission for not meeting residency requirements. The reversal was a "betrayal" that he ascribes to dirty politics practiced by the party he belonged to then, the Democratic Revolutionary Party.
Bruised but unbowed, Bermudez is back, running again for mayor, this time under the banner of Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, and promising to help lift Jerez out of the poverty that drove him away 30 years ago. He said his winning would mean more investment and jobs for Jerez, a hardscrabble cattle-and-corn-raising town that has seen better days.
"I will personally invest $1 million in two canneries that will create 600 jobs -- if I win. You have my word on that," the 54-year-old Bermudez said in an interview Friday in the leafy main plaza of this town 300 miles northwest of Mexico City.
