Institutional change on state levels: 4-year mayor terms in Veracruz

With the Political Reform by Calderón stuck in Congress and unlikely to be dealt with before the 2012 elections, it is of interest to note some institutional change on the state levels, as in the case of Veracruz.

Many reform initiatives have proposed reelection of legislators and mayors, at federal and state levels, yet have invariably met the wall, under the exaggerated mantra of "no reelection!" (which referred to the quarter-century presidency dictator Porfirio Díaz and had nothing to do with legislators or mayors).

In Veracruz, however, the state congress, following its backing by a majority of the state's municipalities, recently declared as legal a reform that extends the mayoral term to four years. I don't think that is a bad initiative at all. On the top of my head I can't think of any other state that has implemented similar changes to the state constitution, but I might be wrong here. Could state governments similarly change the state laws to allow for reelection of local deputies and mayors, or do any federal laws prohibit such initiatives? Far too early to tell whether this particular initiative, long in planning, represents something new - state-level initiatives as responds to failure at passing significant reforms at the federal level - but the initiative is interesting nonetheless.

Fun fact check of AMLO

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said that he is not an enemy of private investment, and that he has not ever called businessmen "white collar criminals." He went as far as to say that he never used the phrase, and would even resign as presidential candidate if it were ever proven that he had uttered these words.

Yes, step down from the presidential contest.

La Jornada, Michoacán edition, June 27, 2006:

"No son empresarios, son traficantes de influencias los que están impulsando esa campaña, nada más que no tiene ni caso mencionarlos, son los que han hecho jugosos negocios, son delincuentes de cuello blanco, traficantes de influencias, los que no quieren que las cosas cambien verdaderamente en nuestro país."

So...

PRI appoints Aristóteles Sandoval as Jalisco governor candidate

In a meeting of its national committee, the PRI, through its old-style mechanism of the dedazo, simply appointed Jorge Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz as its candidate to be governor of Jalisco. Why bother with primaries?

Sandoval is currently the PRI mayor of Guadalajara, and despite the state being a PAN stronghold, does stand a real chance of winning Jalisco.