MEXICO CITY (By Sam Enriquez, LA Times) March 5 2006 — Mexico's leading presidential candidate, the leftist former Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, lives in a 1,500-square-foot apartment in the heart of the city's university village.

Conservative free-market candidate Felipe Calderon lives in a 2,900-square-foot home around the corner from Pizza Hut, Burger King and Blockbuster, neon-lighted landmarks in Mexico's new global economy.

Roberto Madrazo, candidate of the once-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party, has a 14,000-square-foot home on a 3.6-acre estate overlooking the city.

All three men have spent their lives in public service, moving between elected office and political party jobs. The annual income for each man barely cracks six figures.

But according to his financial statements, Madrazo has five houses, three 2,800-square-foot condominiums, a Porsche, a BMW, a Ford Expedition, $500,000 in gold and cash and $250,000 more that he has lent to people.

He has a lease-option on a $1 million-plus Miami condo, but everything else is his, no mortgages, no monthly payments.

Voters have to wonder: How did Roberto Madrazo get so rich?

The answers shed little light on Madrazo's financial acumen but say a lot about Mexican politics.

Polls show Madrazo in third place, with negative ratings double those of his opponents. His campaign appearances have drawn hecklers. On the street, people roll their eyes at the mention of Madrazo and money. Newspapers speculate on whether he'll be yanked before the July 2 election.

One longtime political historian said he thinks he knows why.

"Madrazo represents the traditional political class," said Lorenzo Meyer, professor at the Center for International Studies at the College of Mexico. "In the Mexican traditional political class, most live off politics, not for politics. In that sense, I would say Calderon and Lopez Obrador live for politics."

Madrazo's party, known by its Spanish initials, PRI, ruled the country for seven decades until its defeat in 2000 by President Vicente Fox and his National Action Party, or PAN. The PRI has more than $75 million in public campaign funds to spend trying to convince voters that it's no longer the sticky-fingered party that in past years would rig elections and drain public coffers.

Madrazo, meanwhile, is stuck campaigning as the face of Mexico's new leadership while saddled with many of the trappings of the old.

For example, here is how his campaign explains how Madrazo amassed his holdings on a public servant's pay: "His father had all the money in the world," a spokesman said.

The father, Carlos Madrazo, also led a life of public service. He was the former governor of the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco and a PRI party president, two posts later held by his son.

He was killed along with his wife in a 1969 plane crash when Roberto Madrazo was a teenager.

A big inheritance could explain how Madrazo was able to attend law school and buy his south Mexico City estate, named Cave of the Turtles, before he had turned 30. He declined to be interviewed for this article.

But columnist and political analyst Jose Antonio Crespo, like many others, said Madrazo probably was helped by his wealthy friends.

It's impossible to find Madrazo's hillside residence from the address listed in his financial disclosures, Bugambilia 134. There is no such street in San Andres Totoltepec.

"The street name was changed," the campaign spokesman said.

So was the street number. The house is at 132 Xicalco. An official at the nearby school laughed when asked where Madrazo lived. "Everybody's looking for it," she said.

A wall with a steel gate hides all but a large grass parking lot. But it's possible to see Madrazo's property from satellite images on Google Earth. The coordinates are 19 14' 22.79" N, 99 10' 16.50" W.

Lopez Obrador, the front-runner, "has great political force precisely because he doesn't have great material wealth," said Meyer, the political historian.

"In contrast," he said, "Madrazo never descended from the high ranks, either in Tabasco or national politics. Up there you live side by side with those who live off politics."

Madrazo's long ties to PRI leaders of the past make him suspect among voters, Meyer suggested.

"It's like having a tribe of cannibals," he said, "with one of them saying, 'I was always really a vegetarian.' "