My academic collaborations with Kevin Middlebrook began with our debates over Mexico’s political reform law of 1977 and its longer-term repercussions. This chapter offers a brief overview of the nation’s political evolution since then, including its “democratization by stealth” in the 1990s, and the unresolved issues that have resurfaced under the so-called “Fourth Transformation” experiments of recent years. The chapter focuses on Mexico’s sexennial electoral calendar, which has remained a key and distinctive feature of its political evolution, notwithstanding the many accompanying shifts in policies and personnel that Kevin and I also monitored together. Underlying stability was assisted by this reliable rhythm of elite circulation, and by attentive but non-disruptive oversight from Washington. At the end of our period these stabilizing factors have diminished, and the risks of regime “careening” have increased.