Guest Blog: I Remember Patsy Madrid

This post was submitted by guest blogger James Nathan Post of Albuquerque:

When I was a boy in the early 50's, my family lived in married student housing at New Mexico A&M (now NMSU) in Las Cruces. Those crumbling recycled sheetrock army barracks would not pass today as migrant labor housing, but we appreciated the opportunity the school offered to my father, a young rocket engineer.  My best buddy and next door neighbor was Charles Madrid, whose little sister Patsy today is running for our Congress. Between living on the edge of the desert on the campus of an ag school and watching the V-2's go out at White Sands, it was a great place to be a kid, and I had no idea at all how little our parents had with which to start a post-war life and build a family.   

Patricia's father comes from one of the oldest Tiwa families in the valley, and her mother from one of the old Hispanic families, including a northern European line. A combat veteran WWII SeaBee, Mr. Madrid was studying agriculture, following in the footsteps of Fabian Garcia, of the little state college's first graduating class, who more than any other individual is responsible for creating our state's chile industry with the hybrids he created there. Patricia represents in person an authentic tri-cultural heritage here in this most tri-cultural of states. 

Over the years, I have watched the Madrid family build themselves a good and successful working-class American life, through their own hard work, intelligence, education, courage, honesty, and family solidarity.  Among her brothers and sisters are Vietnam veterans, teachers, farmers, businessmen, a research engineer, and a doctor. None of these accomplishments has been the result of privilege or special assistance. Every step has been earned. Their religious backgrounds run the spectrum from Catholic to the Born Again to the Native Church, and even with such differences, they are a spiritually strong and loving family, with the faith to accept each others' ways of worship.  From her family she has inherited strength, integrity, and open-mindedness that are very rare and precious today.

I remember well when in High School, Patsy attended Girls' State, and came home with a burning passion for law and statesmanship which has been the inspiration and drive of her life since.  I remember when she married a man with all the fine qualities her family had taught her to respect, and have watched as they have proved their worth and family values as parents and kin, while pursuing the most demanding of careers. She is certainly my favorite "kid from back home makes good" story, and I am thrilled to see her run for this office. 

I do not wish upon her the life of Washington DC.  I know how much more pleasant it would be for her to stay here with her family and friends in New Mexico, and to enjoy all the daily blessings that we have here, and to enjoy the rewards of a successful private practice, which would certainly be greater than the office affords.  I am sure she would be the first to agree, and so certainly the least likely to be motivated to run for office by desires for comfort or social and financial gain, even less to cheapen the integrity of her office for such gains. She is willing to undertake all the hardships of living there instead of here, and of daily dealing with our nation's most demanding problems, because she still burns passionately about serving the law with honest statesmanship.

I personally know of no one in our state's political arena whom I would rather see go there to represent us in today's multi-cultural, class-spanning, religiously diverse, history-honoring, forward-looking America than Patricia Madrid.

Heather Wilson's Campaign
Until recently, I have been pleased to say about this upcoming election that I considered it a win/win situation for New Mexico, as both she and Heather Wilson would be good for the office, whatever their particular positions might be on the issues. As a former military officer and veteran combat pilot, I have respected Wilson's military record as an Academy graduate administrative officer. As a Libertarian with some right-wing leanings, I've had no great problem with her strongly partisan role as a voice for the right, and supporter of the current administration's agenda.

I have become terribly disappointed in Wilson with this campaign, however.  It is no surprise she has the great advantage of national fundraising support through the help of President Bush, and so should be expected to have a well-funded media campaign.  It is a shock to me, however, to see she has apparently also been taking her campaign strategy from the president's advisors as well.  Perhaps I have missed something, but so far I believe one hundred percent (that's 100%) of Wilson's campaign on the tube has been not just negative, but simply crude and utterly untruthful muck-slinging.

There is not a word in any of Wilson's ads about what she herself offers to the voter as opposed to Madrid's position.  Each of those shameful ads has consisted entirely of deliberately unflattering pictures of Patricia, and the almost-libelous (wink wink) insinuation that she abused her office as Attorney General as party to cheap financial corruption which in fact she was largely responsible for exposing in the state recently.  For the fund-raiser's dollar, the voter gets shown a smarmy little fingerwagging at the crudely crafted image of a stupid and corrupt local Mexican girl in over her head -- and nothing else.   

I find it tragic (as I did when my jet-jock hero Cunningham shot himself down in flames for mini-bling chump-change recently) to see Wilson lower herself to being used by partisan manipulators to conduct a cheap, shallow, and dirty-dealt campaign, especially knowing that having worked with Patricia for several years, she is well aware the sneaky allegations are wholly unfounded, as well as the image, and her own participation in such low-grade character assassination is dishonest, unjust, and reprehensible.  I find it tragic for Heather Wilson, whatever partisan tactic or personal trophy might be motivating her, because even if she wins the election, she knows she has sacrificed something very precious in herself, exactly that which she has almost-accused (wink wink) Patsy Madrid of lacking.  Personally, I thought Wilson had more class.

Who Should Get Your Vote?
If the issues matter to the voter, I would say vote for the one who represents your position on the issues, whatever you think about their character.  If your views on the issues sometimes span both sides of the political aisle, and you are more concerned about the personal integrity and character of the person holding the office, then as one who has known Patricia and her family for half a century, I could not more highly recommend you vote for her.

Editor's Notes:

This is a guest blog by James Nathan Post, who describes himself this way:

"I graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1961, spent two years at NMIMT in Socorro, then entered the service first as a Marine jet pilot, and then an Army helicopter gunship pilot in Vietnam in 1968. As a pilot, actor, and writer, I lived in California, Arizona, and Costa Rica, and spent five years as member of a Las Vegas sportsbook gambling team. I now live and write full time in Albuquerque, and have more than a dozen books in print, available on my website and other online booksellers: www.zianet.com/postpubco."

Democrat Patricia Madrid is running against Republican incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson for the Congressional seat in NM-01

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