Environment & Energy

in numbers proportional to their share of the population is my suspicion.

Yuma has no effective coverage of local politics--the newspaper is now a hollowed-out, hedge fund-owned shell of its former self, and the local teevee station is a joke. No one will touch the local entrenched power structure. The population is uninformed, apathetic, ignorant, and cowed. That's a recipe for major corruption and self-dealing among politicians there (I dealt with the Board of Supervisors over a zoning matter and saw all of this up close and personal). The politicians are literally untouchable unless the FBI came in from the outside, and that ain't gonna happen. Also, among Hispanics I dealt with, I saw a lot of fatalism and acceptance of the patronage system and kowtowing to "patrons," or wealthy families and leaders, probably from the influence of Mexican political culture.

The original whites who stole land there from the indigenous residents included LDS, going back to the mid-nineteenth century. They are all over that part of AZ and include many families which represent significant generational wealth and political power. Lots of LDS politicians and judges in Yuma. Several LDS families lived in my neighborhood, and I also crossed paths with them quite a bit among the professional classes--the three dentists and a veterinarian I saw while living there were all LDS--they go into the medical professions for the $$$.