Democracy for New Mexico

Major Election Reform Bill Passes NM Senate: Contact House Dems NOW

Info from Charlotte Roybal and Dory Shonagon:
The Senate finally took up SB678 (Lopez), an omnibus election bill, at 9:15 PM on Tuesday, March 15. Three amendments were added and about six were defeated. Shortly after midnight the bill passed on a party-line vote.

With only four days left in the NM Legislative Session, it is very important that we contact ALL Democratic Representatives in the House and urge them to pass this bill because we need election reform THIS SESSION.

Click to find contact information on House members.

Editor's Note: I think it's important to send a note of thanks to all the Dem Senators who voted for this bill. And, in particular, I would thank Senators Linda Lopez (bill sponsor), Gerald Ortiz y Pino and Cisco McSorley and their hard-working staff members for their efforts and negotiating skills that produced this bill. Hooray for this victory! On to the House!

Dialing for Election Reform

From Bob, Charlotte, Leland and All:

Hi All,
House Voters & Elections Committee discussed HB1063 for a time this ayem but postponed action until it meets following the House Floor Session.

As of this time SJC Sub SB 678 had not been considered on Senate Floor but may be considered later in the day.

Since we are down to the last few days of the Legislature, it's best now to call your own lawmakers and any others that you can, but surely the leadership of  both houses, urging them all to support HB1063 and SJC SB678.

Senate leadership is President Sen. Ben Altamirano of Silver City at 986-4733; Dem Majority Leader Sen. Michael Sanchez of Belen at 986-4727; Repub Minority Leader Stuart Ingle of Portales at 986-4702.

House Side: Speaker Ben Lujan of Santa Fe 986-4782; Dem Majority Leader Rep. Ken Martinez of Grants 986-4777; Repub Majority Leader Ted Hobbs of Albuquerque at 986-4757.

Are You Listening to Al Franken This Morning?

From Air America Radio's Al Franken Show:
Most of Team Franken is pluckily braving the snowstorms of New Mexico to (hopefully) bring you a road show from Albuquerque (at the National Hispanic Cultural Center). In hour one, we’ll be joined by New Mexico Governor .

In hour two, we’ll be joined by former US Senator from Oklahoma and presidential candidate Fred Harris. He’s now a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque and he’s writing a book on Social Security’s non-crisis.

We’ll kick off hour three with Conroy Chino, New Mexico’s secretary of labor and an Acoma member of the Pueblo tribe.

Then, we’ll be talking about No Child Left Behind with Lois Meyer, an associate professor of education at the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque. She’s the author of an upcoming analysis called “No Child Left Bilingual.”
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Click to listen live online from 10 AM to 1 PM. Or you can listen on the radio in Albuquerque on KABQ 1350 AM or in Santa Fe on KTRC 1260 AM.
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In the opening minutes of the show, Franken announced that Governor Richardson was stuck up in Santa Fe due to our big snowstorm, but that he would be calling in for the interview. I hope Franken asks the Governor about election reform!
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Update: Govenor Richardson did say he thought we'd get a bill with "voter verifiable (or was that verified) paper trail." Why can't he use the term "ballot"? We'll never know.

Snowy Albuquerque

Our house with the lit, hula-hoop peace sign and our lingering Kerry sign.

Our nearby park.

A special one for Kathy in London, who is missing one of Albuquerque's rare ground-covering snows!

ACTION ALERT: Call Reps about HB1063

On the House side of the election reform bill voting, Rep. Sandoval's office says the NM House Voters & Elections Committee will meet tomorrow (TUESDAY) at 8:30 AM in Room 305 to consider HB1063.

Meanwhile, PHONE PHONE PHONE the legislators and urge them to support HB1063. Every call has an effect on how they vote!

Click to find members of the NM House of Representatives.

ACTION ALERT: Call Democratic Senators Re SB678 on Election Reform

I have just heard that the Committee Substitute SB678, the omnibus election reform bill sponsored by Senator Linda Lopez, will not be heard on the Senate Floor tonight. It will probably be heard tomorrow morning, Tuesday, March 15. However, as I'm sure you're aware, this can change.

You are urged to contact all the Democratic Senators tonight or early tomorrow morning to urge passage of SB678. It's down to the wire, and I have been told that it's extremely important that Senators hear from us NOW.

Click to find the contact information for all Democratic Senators.

More On Republican Walk-Out On Election Reform Bill Hearing

From Sonja Elison of Help America Recount and New Mexico Democratic Friends:

With only a week left in New Mexico's legislative session to clean up the election process, the Republican Party has suddenly made all election reform come to a screeching halt. New Mexico ranked second only to Ohio in the drama and questions surrounding the 2004 Presidential elections and despite a vigorous effort by Help America Recount to look into what researchers called "stunning irregularities" in the election, Governor Bill Richardson chose to pursue comprehensive election reform through the legislative process rather than the investigative process of a recount. After months of negotiating with Republicans and citizens of all parties in the state, however, the Republican Party has thrown into doubt its claims of innocence and its protests that it too wants an accurate and fair election system by in effect killing the Governor's election reform legislation by walking out of the House Voter and Elections Committee rather than allowing the Governor's omnibus election bill to pass.

The following Press release was issued by the New Mexico House of Representatives and is in no way associated with "Help America Recount" or "New Mexico Democratic Friends".

State of New Mexico House of Representatives Press Release
Paul Carbajol 949 246 3592, Alan Oliver 505 553 0759, Victoria Chavez 646 241 5335

Republicans walked away from Voter Identification and Election Reform. Today in the House Voter and Elections Committee the Republican Causcus left the Committee, ending the quorum and ending discussion of Chairman Sandoval's omnibus election reform bill 1063, carried for Governor Richardon. Republicans are not in favor of election reform. Their walkout means that New Mexico can no longer move forward on voter identification, assuring a voter verified, auditable paper trail, and qualfication of provisional ballots, said Chairman Sandoval.

"I'm very disappointed. I felt our subcommittee of Republicans and Democrats had worked together very well over the last week, finding compromises on a number of issues including voter identification and porovidsional ballot qualification," stated House Majority Leader Ken Martinez. "We made a concerted effort to work across party lines on this." Again, I think it shows that their endless drumbeating on voter id is really just noise."

"It's only the people of New Mexico who lose when their Representatives can't work together." stated Speaker Lujan.
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Editor's Note: You can easily send an emails or faxes urging your lawmakers, House/Senate leadership and committee members immediately to support two key bills, Senate Judiciary Substitute Bill for S.B.678, and H.B.1063. Click to visit the VerifiedVoting.org action page.

MoveOn Call-In Day for Fair Judges Set for Wednesday

From MoveOn PAC:
This weekend, we heard from congressional sources that Republicans are closer than ever to the number of Senate votes they need to use the "nuclear option"—paving the way for the appointment of truly extreme right-wing judges. With enough of an outcry, we can stop them. But we need to move fast to get the word out and demonstrate to our senators broad-based opposition to this dangerous measure. So our call-in day comes at just the right time.

This message contains essential info for Wednesday's massive national call-in day (which we described during last week's parties). It also addresses some of the most frequent questions you mentioned in the post-party survey, including how to get involved in Operation Democracy, our big new campaign to fight the right and elect progressives, if you didn't make it to a party. If you're waiting for details on the call-in days—or feeling confused more generally—please read on!

1. The call-in day is on Wednesday. We moved it to Wednesday because Senator Byrd of West Virginia, one of the Senate's most distinguished statesmen, has agreed to headline a MoveOn member rally in Washington, D.C. to coincide with the call-in day (if you live in the D.C. area you'll get a separate message about this event).

2. Materials and instructions are ready. You will find everything you need, including complete call-in day instructions, a flyer for your area with the appropriate senators' names and numbers, a sample script, how-to's and issue info at:

3. If you're a team leader, register your team now. It's easy. You'll be asked for a team name, the area your team will cover, and a description. Don't worry too much about these -- you can change them later. Then you can enter your team members' names and info, or send them a link to sign up themselves. Just click here to start:

4. If you want to participate in Operation Democracy, our new progressive campaign, please join a team or start your own. You can find a team near you by entering your zip at the link below. You can also start your own team, which can be public (other members can find it and ask to join) or private (only people you invite can join). And it can start as small as one or two people. Click here to find or start a team:

Election Bills Today

From Bob Walsh of United Voters of NM:
The Senate floor session is set for 9 AM this morning, with SB678 as fifth on the list of bills, probably not to be considered before 10 AM.

The Senate Rules Committee is scheduled to meet at 8 AM.  The agenda on the website has not been updated since Friday and does not contain any bills of interest.  However, the agenda that was posted on the wall for the Sunday meeting, which was canceled, did contain SB1065 (McSorley) as the 3rd item, but contained neither the Task Force bill (HB) nor the moratorium (HB).  Even if they use Sunday's agenda, they may not get to SB1065.  In fact, they may want to wait on that one to see if SB678 gets through the Senate.

The House Voters and Election Committee does not show anything for today on the web site. This week, of course, all schedules are subject to change by announcements on the floor or on the loudspeakers. In fact, while this letter was being composed, the web site seems to have crashed temporarily.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Vote Expected in the Senate This Week

From the NM Wilderness Alliance:
Last week, the House and Senate budget committees split over whether or not to include proposals to allow drilling in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to be included in the federal budget.  The Senate is poised to vote this week on whether or not to allow the drilling provision to stay in the budget.

Using the following Toll-Free Capitol Switchboard number (1-877-762-8762 toll free) you can connect to any of your Senators, or go to and click on your state to get the direct number for your Senator.

Latest Developments:
On the House side, the House budget resolution has no Arctic provision in it.  In fact, the House budget committee   explicitly stated that they did not want the budget process from being used to open the Artic Refuge to drilling.  "We have tried to keep the budget free of policy. Things like [drilling in the Arctic Refuge] immediately create a lightning rod," said Sean Spicer, spokesman for the committee chairman, Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA).

Even though the entire Budget Committee is now on record saying that they oppose using the budget to advance Arctic drilling, the budget resolution is a non-binding document and is only a recommended blueprint.  Other committees with jurisdiction over specific parts of the budget may ignore the wishes of the budget committee and decide to include a drilling proposal anyway.

In the Senate, the Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH) decided to include the controversial drilling provision in the Senate version.  Despite opposition from several Senators in his own party, Senator Gregg said he thought it was "reasonable" to assume that the drilling provision would remain in the budget.

During the budget committee meeting, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) offered an amendment to strip the Arctic drilling provision out of the budget resolution.  The amendment failed on a straight party-line 10-12 vote.

Next week, the Senate is scheduled to have a floor debate on the budget resolution.  Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will go to the Senate floor with an amendment to remove the provision that allows drilling in America's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Ask your Senator to vote 'YES' on the Cantwell amendment to keep drilling in the Arctic Refuge out of the Senate Budget Bill!