Sunday was election day in Mexico, and the big news was that the old machine, the PRI, won big over the incumbent PAN. PRI is "repackaging itself as a modern party that had shed a corrupt and authoritarian past," reports Ken Ellingwood in the L.A. Times.

The reason we mention the election here is a fascinating footnote, curiously not mentioned in either the LAT's story or the NYT's. The Green Party racked up 10%, campaigning vigorously on a restore-the-death-penalty platform, Angela Kocherga reports for KVUE in Austin. That places them only a shade behind the main leftist party, the PRD, which just three years ago was a contender for the top prize.