Jalisco governor throws his hat into the ring

It’s clear that President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party (PAN) has no obvious presidential candidate for the 2012 election. One man this week raised his voice: “I can beat Peña Nieto!”

The voice was that of Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez at a closed meeting of party heavyweights in Mexico City. Enrique Peña Nieto is the man many believe has the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidature already in the bag, and who is the frontrunner to be the next president, according to a recent Mitofsky poll.

That Gonzalez can make a challenge must be in doubt. He has been a polemic governor. Disputes with the Universidad de Guadalajara, comments about gay marriages making him “sick” and his fondness for tequila (some refer to him ‘Etilio’), amid other scandals, have turned many sectors of Jalisco society against him.

In the Mexico City meeting, Gonzalez made light of the drunk tag and said in Jalisco it was compulsory to drink tequila. Of his frequent blunders in speeches, Gonzalez said he has frequently said “pendejadas,” or stupid things, but that he is honest and no one can accuse him of being corrupt.

Combined with Gonzalez’s nationwide TV commercials that are being investigated for violating the constitution, it seems safe to assume the deeply religious politician born in Lagos de Moreno has now “unofficially” confirmed he would like the PAN nomination. Gonzalez will hope the violence in Jalisco remains relatively subdued and that a successful Pan American Games in October can propel him onto the national stage.

“I’m not discounting myself but I’m not confirming anything either,” said Gonzalez for the umpteenth time last Sunday in Veracruz, a day after lauding himself in the private Mexico City meeting.

It’s to Gonzalez’s advantage that the PAN has no clear-cut candidate but those who have already made their intent to run public seem to have a clear lead. A Mitofsky poll of PAN members from January 30 shows Gonzalez with plenty of work to do. The poll puts Senator Santiago Creel on 40 percentage points, ahead of PAN parliamentary coordinator Josefina Vazquez on 16.8 percent. Gonzalez received a paltry 2.5 percent support from his fellow Panistas.

Speech in which Gonzalez appears to be drunk while talking to businessmen and women and prominent members of the Catholic Church (in Spanish, contains swearing):