10 People Who Will Decide Election- New Mexico

Name: Maria Gonzalez (not to be confused with the Costa Rican gymnast of the same name)

Occupation: Fourth grade teacher

Race: Hispanic

Residency: Santa Fe, New Mexico

Age: 28

Will Likely Vote for: Obama

Santa Fe is the state capital of New Mexico, and the state's fourth largest city. Santa Fe County voted overwhelming for Barack Obama by a 77-23 margin. Obama's win in New Mexico was arguably one of his most impressive since his opponent John McCain is from neighboring Arizona.

New Mexico is not an entirely blue state though as the current governor Susanna Martinez, 59, is a Republican though she lost Santa Fe County to her Democratic opponent Diane Denish. The state's previous governor Bill Richardson (D) attempted to run for office. And, another former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, a former Republican, is on the national ballot as the Libertarian Party candidate.

In her address at the 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa, Fla., Martinez gave speech that was aimed more at Hispanics than independents which was a stark contrast to the red meat, partisan speeches from the likes of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

Currently, "Politico" has President Obama winning New Mexico by a 50-40 margin over Mitt Romney.

http://www.santafe.org

http://www.politico.com

http://www.governor.state.nm.us

http://www.nmdemocrats.org

http://www.gopnm.com

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Working at the Arcade

Alas, the Ms. Pac-Man machine at The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC, apparently does not work, but the venue is hosting the '80s New Wave band The English Beat ("Mirror in the Bathrrom") and I sure as heck would love to be there. (Insert screams of frustration and choice profanity words here). I must profess that The Cat's Cradle is a great concert venue irregardless if their Ms. Pac-Man is working or not (I wonder if they can give us a discount on Blonde Redhead tickets for saying this!)

But, high school and college students can possibly find part-time work at Swingtime in Howell, NJ, which we hope is somewhat near Trenton, NJ, our choice city of the week for this series within a series on summer jobs (yeah, we know, it's getting a bit late for that topic!).

Swingtime also offers mini-golf (in New Jersey?!) and batting cages for the young and the young-at-heart.

This brings us to our High School of the Week (yes, lots of schools across America share this honor which is sort of our joke here on this blog) which is Capital High School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Melanie Romero is the principal.

The school with an enrollment of circa 1,240 students has the nickname of The Jaguars. They have turgoise and black school colors. And, according to Wikipedia (we are wondering if this is a joke), the school was built to resemble the state pen!