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1 of Mexico's richest runs for Tijuana mayor
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/centralphoenix/arti...
Associated Press
May. 28, 2004
TIJUANA, Mexico - The two major candidates for Tijuana's mayorship officially kicked off their campaigns as a millionaire racetrack owner held a
private party at a discotheque and a conservative ex-City Council member opened his race headquarters.
Jorge Hank Rhon, a member of one of the country's richest and most politically powerful families, once was linked by U.S. authorities to drug
smugglers. Those authorities described him as "a significant criminal threat to the United States." Washington later disavowed the report that made
that statement.
Rhon is running with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico from 1929 until losing to President Vicente Fox in 2000. The
party has had a hard time in Tijuana, where it has not controlled the mayorship in 15 years.
The candidate for Fox's National Action Party (PAN) is Jorge Ramos, who stepped down from city government to run and has a commanding lead in recent
newspaper public opinion polls.
The election is on Aug. 1, and electoral rules prohibited Hank Rhon, Ramos and all other candidates from running advertisements and holding campaign
events until Monday.
The mayoral vote was originally scheduled for July 4, but city officials agreed to push the date back after local merchants complained that a ban on
the sale of alcohol during election days would cost the city millions in lost tourism dollars from Californians crossing the border to drink and dance
the night away over the United States' Fourth of July weekend.
PRI officials circumvented the rules in recent weeks, however, by running ads for "a campaign without a candidate" on local radio and television
stations and pouring money into publicity for the Caliente greyhound racetrack, which is owned by Hank Rhon.
Supporters also hung a mammoth banner in support of Hank Rhon at the track.
In a recent interview, Hank Rhon shrugged off suggestions that his controversial past could cost him votes and said he wanted to turn Tijuana into a
Mexican version of its border neighbor, San Diego, by slashing crime rates and attracting heaps of private investment from Mexican and foreign
businesses.
Worth a reported $500 million in U.S. dollars, Hank Rhon kicked off his campaign just after midnight Monday morning at Balak, an exclusive Tijuana
night spot in a mall he owns close to the border.
There the 48-year-old father of 18 addressed a large group of young voters.
Ramos spent his first official day on the campaign trail at a morning Mass, then headed to one of the city's best-known landmarks, the Gran Hotel, to
inaugurate his campaign headquarters, dubbing the building "The Blue House," in honor of his party's colors, blue and white.
A number of smaller parities with little presence in Tijuana have formed an anti-crime alliance with Hank Rhon. They include the Green Party and the
Worker's Party but are not expected to win many votes for the PRI candidate.
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Margie
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Posts: 270
Registered: 4-23-2004
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Dinosaurs of Mexico making a comeback
Well, true to his father's words, "A politician who is poor is a poor politican."
Guess if he is elected, they will open up the proposed Casinos in TJ, then he'll really be able to launder that money !!!
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