Albuquerque Mayor Tomas Zamara understands that politics is like playing football on a muddy field. If you don’t get dirty, you’re not giving your all. But dirty politics is not his style.

It’s 2008 and the presidential campaign is all coming down to New Mexico. Albuquerque Mayor Tomas Zamara, charged with delivering five electoral votes for John McCain, understands that politics is like playing football on a muddy field. If you don’t get dirty, you’re not giving your all. But dirty politics is not his style.

The Democrats’ Barack Obama is drawing adoring crowds with his uplifting speeches, and Zamara’s GOP bosses are pressuring him to do whatever it takes to win.

Challenging him every step of the way is fierce, young Sierra Leon of the Democracy Project, who calls on him to listen to his better self and reject his party’s unsavory practices.

But if only his life were as simple as politics. Mayor Zamara is also grappling with being a suspect in his wife’s murder; fending off his father, who wants to rescue his failing business with city money; and satisfying his demanding new woman, the radiant and volatile Tory Singer, who may not be who she says she is.