“A politician who is poor is a poor politician” (“Un político pobre es un pobre político”) was the well-known political aphorism of Carlos Hank González (1927-2001), a Mexican politician and businessman. The saying has been cited in Spanish print since 1983 and in English since the 1990s.
 
“A politician who’s poor is a poor politician” is a very well-known saying in Mexico and in other Latin American countries as well. The political aphorism has had limited usage in the United States.
 
     
Wikipedia: Carlos Hank González
Carlos Hank González (1927–2001), nicknamed El Profesor (“the professor”), was a Mexican politician and influential businessman. Originally a teacher, he was an entrepreneur who built political contacts along with a business empire, leading to various government and political positions at the state (State of Mexico) and national level. He was prevented from seeking the presidency due to laws requiring both parents to be Mexicans by birth. He became a main powerbroker of then ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He was also linked to illegal activities (stealing part of the land of the Tijuana Caliente horse race track, among others).
     
Google Books
Cuando los banqueros se van
By Héctor Aguilar Camín; et al
México: Ediciones Oceano
1983
Pg. ?:
(“Un político pobre es un pobre político”, Carlos Hank; “la desigualdad social es una herencia histórica…
 
Google Books
La Transición interrumpida:
México 1968-1988
By Ilán Semo; et al
México, D.F. : Departamento de Historia, Universidad Iberoamericana : Nueva Imagen
1993
Pg. 119:
En los años recientes, el gran apotegma es el que Carlos Hank, entonces regente del Distrito Federal, le dice al periodista Manuel Bueno ía: “Un político pobre es un pobre político.”
 
Google Books
How to do business in Mexico:
Your essential and up-to-date guide for success
By Glenn Reed and Roger Gray
Austin, TX; University of Texas Press
1997
Pg. 104:
Un politico pobre es un pobre politico.
[A politician who’s poor is a poor politician.]
ATTRIBUTED TO CARLOS HANK GONZALEZ
 
New York (NY) Times
Carlos Hank González, 73, Veteran Mexican Politician
Published: August 13, 2001
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 12— Carlos Hank González, a wealthy and flamboyant politician who helped shape the political party that ruled Mexico for seven straight decades, died on Saturday. He was 73.
 
Mr. Hank González, famous for coining the phrase ‘‘A politician who is poor is a poor politician,’’ died of prostate cancer at his ranch in the central Mexican city of Santiago Tianguistenco, his family announced.
 
Mr. Hank González was a behind-the-scenes force in the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The party governed Mexico from 1929 until last year, when President Vicente Fox became the first opposition candidate to win the presidency.
     
Google Books
NAFTA’s Second Decade:
Assessing opportunities in the Mexican and Canadian markets
By Louis E. V. Nevaer
Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western
2004
Pg. 236:
“A politician who’s poor is a poor politician,” became his signature aphorism and the disgusting mantra of his followers.
 
Seattle (WA) Times
Thursday, July 08, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
Close-up
Populist or mobster? In Tijuana, support builds for mystery man
By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times
TIJUANA, Mexico —
Jorge Hank Rhon, scion of one of Mexico’s largest fortunes, is throwing a fiesta for the shack dwellers of Colonia Del Rio, a cliff-side shantytown that spills into a canyon just beyond where he stands in his alligator-skin boots.
(...)
Hank’s entry into politics marks a bid to revive one of Mexico’s great political legacies. His father, Carlos Hank Gonzalez, was mayor of Mexico City and a pillar of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century.
(...)
“A politician who’s poor is a poor politician” was a motto often cited by the elder Hank.
 
Buenos Aires Herald
Spanish official says Kirchner couple ‘regrettable,’ questions handling of farming crisis
December 10, 2010
(...)
The documents mention some “questionable” people in the president’s inner circle, and suggests that many in Argentina lived by the old saying “a politician who’s poor is a poor politician.”