URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/2OP9-16.HTM
Opinion

Cockfight Ban High In Poll Pecking Order

   Sixty-six percent of New Mexicans agree that New Mexico's condoning of cockfighting should end, according to a recent poll. And the Research and Polling Inc. survey shows that support for a ban on cockfighting cuts across political, economic, rural/urban and ethnic lines.

   The ethnic breakout is of special interest, since cockfighting is often defended as a part of the rich cultural heritage of Hispanics or, in the case of Louisiana, Cajuns. Louisiana is the only other state that hasn't outlawed this blood sport.

   But 59 percent of Hispanic poll respondents pecked a big hole in that argument. Arturo Sandoval, put it eloquently in testimony before the Senate Conservation Committee in 2003: "It's part of our culture that was acceptable 600 years ago. It's barbaric, ... and for anyone to say a majority of Latinos or Hispanos are in favor of cockfighting is inaccurate."

   For that matter, it is inaccurate for anyone to say it is an unimportant issue -- as Gov. Bill Richardson did in 2003, the last year that a ban on cockfighting was killed in the Legislature. The then-newly elected governor said, "I consider that (cockfighting) an unimportant issue that shouldn't perturb a governor."

   Perhaps it will perturb him that the 66 percent level of support for a ban exceeds his own excellent approval rating of 63 percent. He's not irrelevant or unimportant -- just unresponsive, as are too many lawmakers.

   In this election year, voters have a chance to pin down their lawmakers on this issue. They have a chance to let them know they consider ending cockfighting important -- as is getting New Mexico off one of the lists of ill repute.