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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Gov. George W. Bush points to Texas' relations with Mexico as evidence that he has the international experience needed to become president.
Dogged about his foreign policy know-how throughout the Republican presidential campaign, the two-term governor defended himself this week.
'There's a foreign policy component to being governor of Texas, and that's dealing with Mexico, South America and Central America,' he said in New Hampshire.
Governor since 1995, Bush has made numerous trips to Mexico, befriended its leaders and those of other Latin American countries, supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and split sharply with some fellow Republicans on illegal immigration.
And both Bush, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, and his state have reaped political and economic rewards from the ties to Mexico, experts say.
'He truly knows the relevance of Mexico to Texas and to the U.S. at large. This is a break from the past and from many other politicians in the U.S.,' said Jorge Gonzalez, an associate professor of economics at Trinity University in San Antonio.
Bush campaign spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush has met with Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo at least five times and has sought to develop personal relationships with officials there and in other Latin American nations.
He also has met with the presidents or other top officials of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Colombia, McClellan said.
But it is Mexico where Bush has been most involved.
Texas and Mexico have a long and close history that Bush has recognized. The two share a 1,248-mile border, Texas is the largest exporting U.S. state to Mexico and the cultural and family ties span generations.
While U.S. foreign policy is the domain of the federal government, Bush has played an active role for a state official.
Peter Ward, a professor at the University of Texas' Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, recently completed a study of intergovernmental relations between Texas and Mexico.
'One of the things that struck me is that when George Bush goes down and talks to President Zedillo, they treat him very much as a head of state, not just the head of a state,' Ward said.
He said Bush has 'piggy-backed' on a relationship that has emerged over the past decade. 'It's fair to say that 15 years ago, Texas still looked very much to the north. Since the late 1980s, Texas has looked very much to the south,' he said.
Chandler Stolp, director of the U.S.-Mexican Policy Studies program at the LBJ School, said Bush made ties to Mexico a priority from the start of his administration. He noted that Bush tapped Antonio Garza, county judge of Texas' southernmost county, for a key appointment - secretary of state.
Garza, now chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, recalled that even before taking office, Bush attended Zedillo's inaugural and met with the new Mexican president. At 7 a.m. the morning after his own inauguration, Bush had a breakfast meeting with five Mexican state governors and other Mexican officials.
Garza said it's unusual - but effective - for a U.S. state to have, in essence, a foreign policy.
'We appreciate that in Texas, and I think increasingly you see other border states trying to be more pro-active in their relationships with Mexico,' he said.
A key issue where Bush won Mexican support was the bitter controversy over illegal immigrants sparked by California's Proposition 187.
'I think what makes Bush shine so well in Mexico relations is the contrast with (then-Gov.) Pete Wilson in California,' Stolp said.
Wilson supported Proposition 187, passed by voters in 1994 but overturned by the courts. The measure would have made illegal immigrants ineligible for public social services, non-emergency health care and public education. It also would have required state officials to report suspected illegal immigrants to the authorities.
In sharp contrast, Bush advocated public education for illegal immigrant children. While supporting beefed-up border enforcement, he said there was a difference between enforcing a national border and helping people already here.
'In 1994-1995, when the Republican Party was bashing immigrants, bashing Mexico left and right, Governor Bush came out and said, 'We're not going to do that in Texas.' He stood for Mexico in a moment when Mexico was in deep trouble,' Gonzalez said. 'That gave Texas a tremendous amount of goodwill in Mexico.'
And for Bush, there's been an upside at home.
Mexico is Texas' largest export market, purchasing $36.3 billion in goods last year. Bush also has been rewarded with Hispanic votes.
Although the exact percentages are disputed, Bush has laid claim to more of the Hispanic vote than any other Texas Republican as he swept to re-election in 1998 with 69 percent of the vote.
Hispanics are America's fastest-growing electorate. California, Texas, New York and Florida, each with large Hispanic populations, command 144 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
