Judith L MessalJudith L. Messal became fascinated by two-party politics at the age of nine when she watched the national presidential nominating conventions of 1956. In the 1960s, she was active in the youth wing of the Republican Party in New Mexico. She has spentmuch of her career in higher education, having taught English composition courses for international students at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and for the University of Maryland's European Division in Germany and Turkey. She lives in Albuquerque and is researching mid-century politics in New Mexico. Her articles on the public service career of Governor Edwin L. Mechem have been published in the Southern New Mexico Historical Review. Read More Read Less