和谐英语

经济学人下载:新墨西哥州州长怎样赢得人心

2012-03-14来源:Economist

New Mexico’s governor
新墨西哥州州长

How to grab them
怎样赢得人心

Susana Martinez shows how Republicans might one day woo Latinos
苏珊娜•马丁内斯的作为表明,也许有一天共和党会迎合拉美裔人

The Republicans’ new weapon
共和党的新武器

TORIBIO ORTEGA, who supposedly fired the first shot in the Mexican Revolution a century ago, would have been surprised if told that a descendant of his would one day run an American state. So would Adolfo Martinez, another Mexican revolutionary, who crossed the sparsely patrolled border into America in the 1920s (whether legally or not is unclear from census records). But today Susana Martinez of New Mexico, great-granddaughter of the former and granddaughter of the latter, does just that: she is America’s first Latina governor

一般认为,是托里比奥•奥尔特加打响了一个世纪以前墨西哥革命的第一枪。这名革命者如果知道有一天他的后人会当上美国州长,一定会惊讶得目瞪口呆。要是换成阿道夫•马丁内斯,也会一样惊讶。他也是墨西哥革命者,在上个世纪二十年代穿越了防备松懈的边境进入美国(从人口普查数据无法得知此次越境是否合法)。而今天,奥尔特加的曾外孙女,同时也是马丁内斯的孙女,苏珊娜•马丁内斯确实做到了:她当上了新墨西哥州州长,成为了美国历史上第一位拉丁裔女州长。

Her Democratic predecessor, Bill Richardson, is of Mexican descent on his mother’s side. And Brian Sandoval in Nevada is both Latino and Republican. But Ms Martinez is the only governor who is simultaneously Hispanic, female and Republican. As such, she seems well on the way to embodying the party’s hoped-for future as a conservative movement that can appeal to, rather than repel, Latinos, America’s fastest-growing main ethnic group.

前任州长、民主党人比尔•理查森的母亲是墨西哥人。内华达州州长布莱恩•桑多瓦尔既是拉丁裔又是共和党人。但是马丁内斯是唯一一名共和党拉丁裔的女性州长。由于她的特殊身份,马丁内斯似乎正在成为一种形象,代表着共和党所希望的未来:即把共和党转变为一个吸引,而不是压制美国增长最快的主要民族群体-拉美裔人的保守派运动。

This is why many Republican strategists are now studying her. New Mexico, which has the highest share (almost half) of Latinos of any state in the country, is, along with Colorado and Nevada, an important swing state for 2012. John McCain, the Republican candidate last time and a senator from Arizona, thinks that Latinos are up for grabs in these states and even in his own, if Republicans will just change their nativist tone.

这就是为什么现在有众多共和党战略家研究她的策略。新墨西哥州人口中拉美裔的比例全国最高,接近总人口的一半。它和科罗拉多以及内华达州一样,都是2012年大选中重要的“摇摆州”(swing state,竞选双方势均力敌,都没有明显优势的州)。上一届总统选举时共和党总统候选人、亚利桑那州参议员约翰•麦凯恩认为,如果共和党改变他们排斥移民的本土主义论调,那么上述三个州、甚至亚利桑那州的拉美裔人都是可以争取到的。

This is old news to Ms Martinez. Sitting in Santa Fe’s remarkably informal Roundhouse, as the state capitol is nicknamed in homage to old Navajo hogans, she describes her conversion to Republicanism as a Damascene moment. Like most Latinos, she and her husband, Chuck Franco, started out as Democrats “because our parents were”. Then, one day in the 1990s, she and Mr Franco had lunch with two local Republicans. “They just asked questions, never asked us to switch party,” recalls Ms Martinez. And yet, as they sat in the car after the lunch, Ms Martinez turned to her husband and said, “Chuck, we’re Republicans. What do we do now?”

这种说法对于马丁内斯来说已经是陈词滥调。她正坐在圣达菲的带有强烈异族风格的名为“圆屋”的州议会大厦中——起这个名字是为了纪念印第安纳瓦霍的古老的木条泥屋——描述她从一名民主党人转变成一名共和党人的过程,说这是一次信仰的颠覆。像大多数的拉丁裔人一样,她和丈夫查克•弗朗哥一开始都是民主党人“因为我们的双亲都是民主党人”。上个世纪九十年代的某一天,夫妻俩和当地的两名共和党共进午餐。“他们只是问一些问题,但是根本没有让我们改变党派。”马丁内斯回忆说。然而,午餐后夫妻俩回到车中,马丁内斯转向丈夫,说:“查克,我觉得我们现在是共和党人了。怎么办?”

She is only now beginning to work out her answer. Last year, when she ran for governor, she focused less on philosophy and more [color=Red]on fatigue with Mr Richardson, a Democrat who was termed out of office but had a reputation for sleaze. (A probe by a grand jury, the latest of several, is investigating alleged campaign-finance problems dating to his run for president in 2008.)

而直到现在她才开始寻找这个问题的答案。去年竞选州长时,她没有过分宣传自己的理念,而是主要利用人们对理查森的厌倦争取支持。民主党人理查森带着昭著的臭名期满离任。(一个大陪审团已经对他展开调查,最近的是调查他2008年参加总统竞选时的竞选融资问题。)

So Ms Martinez, so far, has simply tried to represent clean government. Her most photogenic act was to sell the state jet, a Cessna Citation Bravo, which Mr Richardson, she implied, had used as “a personal air taxi”. She even fired his cooks.

因此,到目前为止马丁内斯都只是在努力建立一个清廉的政府。她最值得夸耀的举动就是卖掉了州政府中的Cessna Citation Bravo 喷气机,她说理查森曾经将这架喷气机用作“私人空中的士”。她甚至还解雇了理查森的厨师。