Gov. Tingley

GOP governor candidate Duke Rodriguez, already struggling with the issue of whether he is a resident of New Mexico or Arizona and eligible to run for the state's highest office, erred on a key point of state history when he appeared before a group of business executives in Santa Fe recently. 

As reported on the blog last week, he told the group:

We have never elected a former mayor, current mayor, to the governor's office. That's a fact, and it's not going to happen. 

Readers doubling as historians came out out of the woodwork to school Duke on the finer points of mayoral service including Joe Sabatini: 

Duke Rodriguez is wrong about mayors becoming governors of New Mexico. Washington Lindsay was mayor of Portales and was elected lieutenant governor in 1917. He almost immediately became governor upon the death of Governor Eziquel C de Baca. James Hinkle was mayor of Roswell, and served as governor in 1923-24. Arthur Hannett was mayor of Gallup, and served as governor in 1925–26. Clyde Tingley was chairman of the Albuquerque city commission, ex-officio Mayor, beginning in 1925. He served as governor from 1935 to 1939. 

Thanks, Joe. Mayor Keller, who has fantasized about being Governor, will be glad to hear that (and so will Duke's chief rival for the '26 GOP Guv nomination, Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull.)

Reader Mark Valdes came with this lesson: 

Clyde Tingley was first elected to the Albuquerque City Commission in 1922, became chairman in 1925 (Comparable to mayor) and served until 1935 when he was elected governor, serving from 1935 to 1939. Then he was re-elected Chairman of the Albuquerque City Commission from 1940-1953. 

Additionally, Arthur Seligman served as Mayor of Santa Fe from 1910 to 1912 and was later elected governor serving from 1931 to 1933. Over time numerous mayors have unsuccessfully run for governor. 

The photo of Governor Tingley by his automobile with the #1 license plate is in front of the old governor’s mansion south of De Vargas Street between Don Gaspar Avenue and Galisteo Street where the Jerry Apodaca Education Building sits today. 

Well done, armchair historians.  

We would add that ABQ Mayor Marty Chavez ran for governor in 1994 as the Democratic nominee but was defeated by Gary Johnson. In 1970, ABQ City Commission Chairman Pete Domenici, like Tingley an ex-officio mayor of ABQ, was the GOP governor nominee and lost to Bruce King.  

As for Duke, you sir are the victim of an Alligator strike. 

For being busted on the finer points of La Politica you are to be administered ten lashes with a wet noodle at a shuttered motel along Route 66 in Arizona.  But do have an enjoyable Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

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