Democracy for New Mexico

Your Thread on Last Night's MeetUp

According to our sign-in sheets and head counts for last night's Albuquerque DFA - DFNM MeetUp at Page One, almost 100 people were in attendance! We had lots of new faces, as well as many whose involvement dates back to the early days of the Dean campaign. Quite a turnout -- one that spilled out of the cafe and into the bookstore proper. Thanks for everyone's patience with the crowded environment!

I think we got a good start on understanding the structure of the local Democratic Party and how to get more involved at the precinct and ward levels, thanks to an excellent presentation by ex-ward chair Bruce Barnaby. Much more action to come on this, as well as work on compiling useful information about the Party on this website.

As always, Dr. Miles Nelson was inspiring in speaking about the future of progressive and, yes, liberal politics in New Mexico. He explained the promise of his fledgling SeedPAC to support progressive local and state candidates with both money and volunteers. I know many of us will participate in the PAC and contribute money and time. Miles also urged us to attend the Thank You Volunteers potluck this Sunday at 4:00-7:00 PM at 5th and Copper, sponsored by SeedPAC. In addition to lots of good food, this event will feature representatives of groups like MoveOn and ACT, who will lead a brainstorming session about the focus of future actions and how each group can best contribute. I expect to see many familiar faces of people who volunteered in various ways during this past election.

ABQ MeetUp also had a number of reports from attendees about projects and plans for political action. I'll be compiling information on these and featuring them in posts over the next few days.

I'm proud to report that ABQ Meetup folks donated the equivalent of 4,335 minutes, worth about $400, to DFA's national effort to collect long distance phone cards for vets at VA hospitals. This will help many deserving vets call friends and family during the holiday season. Democracy for America will match these contributions dollar for dollar and see that the phone cards get to the places where they can help the most. Thanks to all who gave generously on this effort! There's still time for more donations of phone cards before I send the batch to Burlington VT. Click on the "Email Me" link on the upper right-hand side of this page and I'll tell you how.

Now go ahead and click on "Comments" below to add your take on how the MeetUp went last night and what we need to do in the weeks and months ahead! And we'd love to hear from folks from the Santa Fe and Las Cruces Meetups too.

A Horrible New Record

Military Fatalities by Month in Iraq according to the website:

Period	US	UK	Other*	Total	Avg	Days
11-2004	137	4	0	141	4.7	30
10-2004	63	2	2	67	2.16	31
9-2004	80	3	4	87	2.9	30
8-2004	66	4	5	75	2.42	31
7-2004	54	1	3	58	1.87	31
6-2004	42	1	7	50	1.67	30
5-2004	80	0	4	84	2.71	31
4-2004	135	0	5	140	4.67	30
3-2004	52	0	0	52	1.68	31
2-2004	20	1	2	23	0.79	29
1-2004	47	5	0	52	1.68	31
12-2003	40	0	8	48	1.55	31
11-2003	82	1	27	110	3.67	30
10-2003	43	1	2	46	1.48	31
9-2003	30	1	1	32	1.07	30
8-2003	35	6	2	43	1.39	31
7-2003	47	1	0	48	1.55	31
6-2003	30	6	0	36	1.2	30
5-2003	37	4	0	41	1.32	31
4-2003	73	6	0	79	2.63	30
3-2003	65	27	0	92	7.67	12
Total	1258	74	72	1404	2.26	622

And the number of Iraqi civilian casualties in November in Fallujah? The Allawi regime and the Pentagon keep saying it's very small. We'll probably never know.

Meanwhile, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Pentagon said Wednesday that it will boost the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to about 150,000, the highest level since the U.S. occupation began 19 months ago.

Most of the increase in the troop count -- which stands at about 138, 000 now -- will come from extended deployments of units already there as others arrive. That will keep some soldiers in Iraq for combat tours of 14 months, beyond the yearlong mission that most troops are told to expect, Pentagon officials said. . .

. . . "The ferocity with which the war is being waged by both sides is escalating," said Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "It is not just that the number of incidents are increasing. The war looks to be changing in character."

DPBC Meeting Tonight at UNM Law School

The monthly meeting of the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County, delayed from November 18, will be held at:

UNM Law School, Room 2401
1117 Stanford Drive NE
Thursday, December 2 (today) at 6 PM
Click for a Mapquest map.

Jeff Carabajal and Jaime Diaz of the Office of the County Clerk will discuss the election and its aftermath.  All Democrats are welcome.

DFNM is urging anyone who can make it to attend this meeting. We'd like to have a large turnout to emphasize how many people are interested in improving how our local Party works and strengthening the power of the grassroots. There will be no doubt be alot of talk about our failure to have a fair election with verifiable voting machines and consistent standards for judging provisional and other paper ballots. The recent request for a recount of the presidential election by the Green and Libertarian candidates should keep these issues front and center at this meeting and beyond.

Come on down to the UNM Law School tonight!

NM Recount Sought by Green, Libertarian Candidates - Can You Help?

According to an article in today's Albuquerque Journal, Green Party nominee David Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik have requested a statewide presidential race recount in New Mexico of paper ballots in all precincts, as well as a reexamination of voting machines to check for potential problems. The recount will not include provisional ballots, according to Denise Lamb of the Election Bureau. Moreover, it's unlikely the recount will be finished before the December 13th meeting of NM's presidential electors to cast the state's five electoral votes.

According to the Journal, New Mexico's official election returns certified by the state canvassing board show Bush with 376,930 votes (49.8%), Kerry with 370,942 votes (49%), Badnarik with 2,382 votes (0.3%) and Cobb with 1,226 votes (0.2%) .

MoveOn PAC has sent out an email requesting help with the recount:

"The recount will proceed separately in each of New Mexico's 33 counties, and in order to ensure the counting is fair, the Cobb campaign plans to have volunteers supervise the counting. That will require several volunteers in each county all day for a number of days, and the campaign has asked MoveOn PAC for help.

"Can you offer a couple hours, a full day, or even several days to help protect democracy in New Mexico and make sure the final count is fair and accurate? If so, click here to get involved.

"The recount process will be determined by the Secretary of State as well as county officials. They have yet to announce when it will start, what the process will be, whether it will run only during business hours or over the weekend, etc.

"So, the campaign is signing up a volunteer corps now to be prepared to leap into action the moment the recount details are revealed. They will provide training to volunteers, but it's not that difficult: you'll just watch as officials count the ballots to make sure nothing looks fishy.

"We'll pass your name and contact information to the Cobb campaign if you sign up, so they can give you more information on what to do next. Technically, you will act as an official representative of the Cobb-LaMarche Green Party campaign when you observe the counting."

Only the Grassroots Can Save the Democratic Party

Joe Trippi's Wallstreet Journal column on the future of the Democratic Party is featured in its entirety on Common Dreams. To me this is one of the smartest analyses offered so far in the continuing discussion about the future of the Party and the progressive movement many within it want to shun. What's your take?

Some excerpts:

"The staggering defeat of the Democratic Party and its ever-accelerating death spiral weren't obvious from the election results. Two factors masked the extent of the party's trouble. Without the innovation of Internet-driven small-donor fund-raising and a corresponding surge in support from the youngest voters, John Kerry would have suffered a dramatically larger defeat. And the true magnitude of the Democrats' abject failure at the polls in 2004 would have been more clearly revealed.

"Mr. Kerry raised nearly half of his war chest over the Internet. He was so successful at this that he actually outspent the Bush campaign. But it was the outsider campaign of Howard Dean, reviled by most of the Democratic establishment, that pioneered the use of the Internet to raise millions in small contributions; Mr. Kerry was just the beneficiary as the party nominee. And it was the risk-taking Dean campaign that forced the risk-averse Kerry campaign to opt out of the public financing system. Had that decision not been forced on Mr. Kerry, he would have been badly outspent by George Bush; he would not have been competitive at all throughout the long summer of 2004.
[. . .]
"Since the Democratic Leadership Council, with its mantra of "moderate, moderate, moderate," took hold in D.C., the party has been in decline at just about every level of government. Forget the Kerry loss. Today the number of Democrats in the House is the lowest it's been since 1948. Democrats are on the brink of becoming a permanent minority party. Can the oldest democratic institution on earth wake from its stupor? Here are some steps to pull out of the nose-dive:

• Democrats can't keep ignoring their base. Running to the middle and then asking our base to make sure to vote isn't a plan. And to those who say talking to your base doesn't work -- Read the Rove 2004 playbook!

• Democrats must reconnect with the energy of our grass roots. One of the failures of the DLC was that its ideas never helped us build a grass-roots donor base. As a result, Democrats held a lead over Republicans in only one fundraising category before this election cycle: contributions over one million dollars. That shows how far the party had strayed from grassroots fundraising before the Dean campaign. We must build a base of at least seven million small donors by 2006. With the Internet it's possible. But it can't just be about the money, it also has to be about ideas.

• The one thing we learned in the Dean campaign was that the 30 people in Burlington weren't as smart as the 650,000 Americans who were part of our campaign. Instead of a DLC in D.C., Democrats should be holding Democratic Grassroots Councils in every county. Democratic National Committee members in each state, along with the state party, should host and moderate these meetings to develop ideas that come from the people, instead of the experts in D.C.

• A party that ignores the needs of state and local parties is doomed. We must begin to invest aggressively in states we continually write off in national elections. If we don't, the decline of the party in these states will continue until we're non-existent. Look at the south.

• In a world in which companies like Wal-Mart pay substandard wages with no real benefits, our party has got to find innovative ways to support organized labor's growth. A declining union membership is not good for the country, it's not good for working people, and it certainly isn't good for the Democratic Party.

• The Democratic Party has to be the vehicle that empowers the American people to change our failed political system. We all know the damn thing is broken. Democrats should lead the way by placing stricter money restrictions on candidates than the toothless Federal Election Commission does. A party funded by contributions from the people can do this. A corrupted and corroded party cannot. The Democratic Party shouldn't wait for campaign-finance reform -- it should be campaign-finance reform.

• Finally, what is the purpose the party strives for today? What are our goals for the nation? You couldn't tell from the election. Very few good ideas come from the middle, and they tend to be mediocre. Consultants have become adept at keeping candidates in that safe zone. But the time has come to develop bold ideas and challenge people to sacrifice for the common good. Experts will tell you that you can't ask the American people to sacrifice individually for the common good. Those experts are wrong -- it's just been so long since anyone has asked them."