Border State Governors Ditch Mexico Conference

The governors of border states in the US and Mexico have been holding a conference to discuss cross-border issues every year for 30 years, but the tradition appears to be withering, the AP finds. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez was the only one of the four US border state governors to make an appearance this year. Arizona's Jan Brewer and California's Jerry Brown cited pressing issues to deal with in their states, while Rick Perry is away from Texas and on the campaign trail.

A spokesman for Brewer says her absence is due to a meeting involving state child protective services and has nothing to do with Mexican opposition to Arizona's immigration law. Three out of six Mexican border governors were present at the conference's opening ceremony yesterday. Only three years ago, all 10 border governors made it to the conference, hosted that year by Arnold Schwarzenegger. "This could be the one conference a year that everyone who cares about the border has to be at. It hasn't become that," says a Woodrow Wilson Center analyst. (Maybe Alabama will get a special invite next year?)