Out there in West Texas, they know how to do things right. Like spring surprise mayoral resignations.

The mayor of San Angelo, J.W. Lown, abruptly announced his resignation just days before he was to be sworn in for his fourth term as mayor, the San Angelo Standard Times reports.

Surprise Number One: He made the announcement from Mexico, where he had suddenly bolted to.

Surprise Number Two: He was resigning because he is in a relationship with an illegal alien and they're trying to fix the alien's status.

Surprise Number Three: Both Lown and the Mexican citizen are guys. As in HE'S GAY. In San Angelo.

Lown is obviously a well-respected public servant: He won the most recent re-election with 89 percent of the vote, and stunned city council members were effusive in their praise for his work.

But it's also obvious they didn't know he was in the closet.

Lown told the paper he would come back to the city "if the people of San Angelo will welcome me back."

Let's hope they do. It could be fascinating.

Some would be troubled by the illegal-alien thing, of course. Some because he was helping someone he knew was illegal, and was mayor of the town while doing so. Others might just hate the Messkins.

But the whole gay thing, in West Texas? Hard to say. You would hope people would be open-minded, but then again we've been to West Texas.

Boy, there's a TV movie here for someone: Popular, young attractive mayor of a prairie town, torn by love, decides to go back to Mexico to help his partner get legal. He has to give up a job he also loves...and he has to come out.

J.W. Lown, get yourself an agent.