Blogs by David Oakeley

Who the Heck I am

I have lived up and down New Mexico’s Rio Grande valley my entire life and have no desire to live anywhere else.  Born to a Mexican mother and a father who considered himself “Spanish” (the Oakeley comes from my great grandfather who moved in the late 1800s to New Mexico; the rest is Montoya, Duran and Cortez, all from the Taos area), I spent the first 15 years of my life in idyllic Taos. 

Taos has always been a tough place to make a buck and my carpenter father moved his wife, son and four daughters to Las Cruces for work, sunshine and easy access to New Mexico State University.  I took advantage of low tuition and living at home and earned a BA degree in journalism and mass communications. 

I sound like Ted Baxter from the old Mary Tyler Moore Show in that got my professional news start on a small 5,000 watt AM radio station in Las Cruces.  As news director I covered everything—city hall, the courts, the county, the cop beat, the schools and high school and college sports.  And, I also shot video and was a news correspondent for TV stations in El Paso and Albuquerque.  I was a one man news crew and it was exciting!

Politics led me to Santa Fe in the early 80s where I cut my teeth as press secretary on a successful gubernatorial campaign and that led to a public relations gig at the New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque. While there I took a fancy to marketing and upon my departure ended up as an account executive at a large Duke City advertising agency. 

Other marketing jobs ensued including media sales, the Downs at Albuquerque and a ten year stint back in Las Cruces as marketing director for the NMSU athletics department.  I thought I had experienced it all when I was lured back to the beautiful North to take the job as marketing director for one of the Santa Fe area casinos.

I spent ten years working in a casino environment and learned a lot about the business.  My column, Enchanted Odds, will give you more insight into the world of casinos with an emphasis on the ones close to Santa Fe. 

There are many people who never enter a casino and it’s unlikely that they will be reading this column.  But there are many others in the Santa Fe area---thousands of persons---who do frequent casinos.  So whether you go for the food or drink, or the entertainment or the gambling, then this blog just might be of interest to you. 

I hope you find the column entertaining and informative.  I look forward to this new venture.