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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Calderon Turns to Mexican Poor in Presidency Bid
 Lorraine Orlandi - Reuters
| | Ruling-party presidential hopeful Felipe Calderon, of the National Action Party, (PAN), gives the thumbs up sign after registering his candidacy with federal electoral officials in Mexico City, Mexico Wednesday Jan. 11, 2006. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo) |
Mexico City - After racing from behind to become the presidential contender for Mexico's ruling conservative party, Felipe Calderon appealed to the poor on Wednesday to carry him to victory in the July election.
The straight-talking son of a founding member of the National Action Party, or PAN, Calderon formally registered as a candidate and asked laborers, taxi drivers, secretaries and other blue-collar workers -- a bloc seen as crucial to deciding the race -- to join his alliance "beyond party and creed."
He said he felt the pain of Mexico's worst off.
"I share the worries of the peasant farmer whose work cultivating the land sunrise to sunset doesn't pay off with the sale of his harvest, I share the concerns of the mother who can't earn enough to feed her children," he told PAN faithful.
Calderon's surprise victory in October's PAN primary vote boosted his credibility and he surged to second place in national opinion polls.
But he remains the least well-known of the top three candidates, and in a tight race he needs to reach beyond his middle-class base for support, analysts say.
The front-runner is Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist former mayor of Mexico City who appeals to Mexico's vast underclass with promises of big social spending programs.
The third candidate is Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled for 71 years until President Vicente Fox swept to power in 2000 by drawing votes from beyond his PAN's natural base with calls for change.
Calderon, 43, a gutsy, bespectacled lawyer with a Harvard degree, quit as energy minister in 2004 in a falling out with Fox and went on to beat former Interior Minister Santiago Creel, Fox's favorite for the PAN nomination, in the primary.
Wider Message Needed
"Does he have a message that goes beyond the center-right that the PAN represents?" said Marifeli Perez-Stable at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.
"He needs to craft a message that goes beyond people like him and his family," she said. "Calderon needs to craft a campaign that shows his competency, but that shows he understands why so many people in Mexico are angry."
While Lopez Obrador is basing his campaign on a promise to help the poor, Calderon's key proposals are economic stability, new jobs, and a tough stance on crime. That could win broad support in a country where many are angry over a surge in common crime as well as violent kidnapping and drug gangs .
On Wednesday, he came out swinging on behalf of immigrants facing stiffer U.S. controls. U.S. proposals for a fence on the frontier and other measures have sparked resentment south of the border and fanned tension with Washington.
"We oppose the construction of a wall that offends us and against laws that consider our migrants criminals for seeking an income for their families," he told cheering supporters.
Although he is seen as a loyal son of a party often characterized by its most conservative, Catholic elements, Calderon and his family come from what political scientist Federico Estevez called the party's "centrist fringe."
"Though he is very much a party animal he is not necessarily from the darkest recesses of its extreme right," said Estevez, who once advised ex-President Ernesto Zedillo. "That augers well since he will be able to genuinely appeal to a more moderate and centrist group to win nonpartisan voters."
Additional reporting by Alistair Bell
Presidential Candidate Calderon on the Rise
Will Weissert - AP
Ruling-party presidential hopeful Felipe Calderon registered his campaign with election officials Wednesday, saying he understands the problems facing common Mexicans and will stem the flow of migrants who head north in search of higher-paying jobs.
The tough-talking, Harvard-educated attorney has become the rising star of Mexican politics, gaining ground in public opinion polls despite widespread disappointment with President Vicente Fox, also a member of the National Action Party.
But he has acknowledged that he is the least-known of the three major candidates - and that his momentum could evaporate if he fails to connect with voters.
Calderon addressed would-be voters directly on Wednesday, saying "I am fully aware of your problems and your needs."
"I share the worries of the farmer who does all he can to cultivate the land from sun up to sun down and doesn't get paid fairly for his harvest," he told 400 cheering supporters outside the electoral commission headquarters in southern Mexico City. "I share the worries of the mother who is unable to support her children ... the sadness of young people who, after putting all their efforts into their studies, can't find dignified work."
Former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, for months the front-runner in Mexico's July 2 election, has lost much of his lead as other candidates have begun to campaign more intensively, according to polls.
Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party - which held Mexico's presidency from its founding in 1929 until losing to Fox in 2000 - is fighting to bring his party back to the presidential residence, Los Pinos.
"Our adversaries are agitated and upset," said Calderon, whose speech was interrupted more than a dozen times by applause and chants. Our campaign "is the only option that is growing, that is rising and advancing."
Calderon promised to build a strong nation that can provide enough high-paying jobs to reduce illegal immigration to the United States. He also promised to give Mexicans universal health care, better education and safer streets.
Fox is limited by the constitution to a single six-year term. Opinion polls show that the president himself remains popular, but many Mexicans have become frustrated at his inability to push reforms through a Congress dominated by opposition parties. |
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