Tom Bolack

Thomas Felix "Tom" Bolack (May 18, 1918 – May 20, 1998) was a New Mexico businessman and politician, who served as the 20th Governor of New Mexico for 32 days in 1962–63.

Bolack was a self-educated oilman who learned geology from correspondence courses. He was also a rancher and owner of the Albuquerque Dukes minor-league baseball team from 1956 to 1963.

Political career

Bolack was Mayor of Farmington, New Mexico from 1952 to 1954 and a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives from 1956 to 1958. In 1957 he unsuccessfully ran for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, losing soundly to Joseph Montoya.

In 1960, Bolack was elected Lieutenant Governor by a margin of 279 votes, becoming the first Republican Lieutenant Governor in New Mexico since 1928. That Bolack, an "Anglo" (or New Mexican not of Spanish or Indian descent), was able to defeat a candidate with Spanish ancestry in state-wide elections was seen as one of several signs of the decline of the influence of long-time U.S. Senator Dennis Chavez. Democrats challenged the narrow victory, on the basis that some voters on Navajo reservations should have been required to vote outside of their reservations, but the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in Bolack's favor.