Democracy for New Mexico

ALERT: Stephanie Gonzales Campaign Asks Your Help

Democrat STEPHANIE GONZALES for Secretary of State

GET OUT THE VOTE!! WE NEED YOU!! ALBUQUERQUE

Saturday June 3rd
10:30 AM – Canvassing (University Area)
2:30 PM – After Canvassing – relax with some refreshments and visit with Stephanie!!

Sunday, June 4
2:00 PM - Canvassing In Abq, we will meet at 107 Bryn Mawr Dr., SE (off Central - between Richmond and Wellesley)

Contact HQ @: (505) 989-1811. SIGN UP TODAY!  LET'S WIN BERNALILLO COUNTY FOR STEPHANIE!!

TONIGHT: AFSCME Thank You Party and Rally

From Carter Bundy of AFSCME:
AFSCME will host a party with free food and drinks for AFSCME members who have volunteered on AFSCME-endorsed candidates' races and for the campaigns of the candidates it has endorsed for the June 6 primary. All Democratic primary voters are welcome! Here's the info on the party:

Time:  5:30 - 8:00 PM
Date:  Friday, June 2
Place: 2836 Monument Dr. NW (Carter Bundy's house)

Directions: From I-40, take Unser North to 3rd light (Ouray/Lava Bluff). Go West (left if you're coming from I-40, right if you're coming from Montano) on Lava Bluff. 1st Left is Monument Drive.  2836 is the 6th house on the left.

Who:  AFSCME members supporting AFSCME-endorsed candidates, candidates, candidates' volunteers and staff, and Democratic primary voters who want to meet the candidates, mingle with other Democratic activists, and enjoy free food and drink!

The following is a list of AFSCME's endorsed statewide candidates and candidates in contested races in Bernalillo County:

Governor--Bill Richardson
Lt. Governor--Diane Denish
Secretary of State--Letitia Montoya*
Attorney General--Geno Zamora*
Treasurer--James Lewis
Auditor--Tom Buckner*
Land Commissioner--Ray Powell*
County Commission District 1--Alan Armijo*
House Dist. 16--Antonio "Moe" Maestas*
House Dist. 18--Gail Chasey

*=contested primary

Please RSVP to carterbundy@yahoo.com if you think you can make it (include how many folks you will bring) so we can get enough food and drinks for everyone. 

Feel free to spread among your organizations, especially if you know anyone in Albuquerque (and the Westside in particular).

Carter Bundy
AFSCME International
Political Action Representative
New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Idaho
505-266-2177 (work)
505-463-8499 (cell)

Early Voting Ends Saturday for NM Primary Election

The New Mexico primary election is set for Tuesday, June 6. You need to be registered to vote as a Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary races. You can vote early through Saturday at your county clerk's office or at the additional satellite voting sites provided in many counties. Again, call your county clerk or access their website to find out where these locations are in your county. Click for early voting sites in Bernalillo County.

You can find the location of your county clerk's office here. You can also access general election and voting information at the Secretary of State's site. The League of Women Voters is another good source of voting and election information. The Democratic Party of NM website has statewide candidate listings and photos, as well as candidates for the legislature.

More information is provided in an earlier post. Here's a list of the statewide candidates running in the Democratic primary, and you can click on the candidate name to visit their campaign website:

U.S. Senator: Jeff Bingaman (unopposed)

Governor: Bill Richardson, plus Write-In Candidate: Anselmo A. Chavez

Lt. Governor: (unopposed)

Secretary of State: Stephanie Gonzales, Mary Herrera, Shirley Hooper, Letitia Montoya

State Treasurer: James B. Lewis (unopposed)

Attorney General: , Lemuel Martinez, Geno Zamora

Commissioner of Public Lands: Jim Baca, Ray Powell, Jr.

U.S. Representative (District 1): Patricia Madrid (unopposed)

U.S. Representative (District 2): Al Kissling (unopposed)

U.S. Representative (District 3): Tom Udall (unopposed)

Judges - Retention:
Justice of the Supreme Court: Edward L. Chavez
Judges of the Court of Appeals: Cynthia A. Fry, Lynn Pickard, Jim Wechsler

You can check the Secretary of State's website for a list of the statewide candidates, as well as the district candidates who are primary candidates.

NEEDED ASAP: Election Day Observers

From Dory Shonagon:
ELECTION DAY OBSERVER WORK, TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2006: We need people willing to work on election day to be at the polls and observe what happens there. This is a VERY important job, because we can gather data about what the problems are with the voting machines and how voters are treated throughout the process of voting and solve some problems as they come up.

PLEASE CONTACT DORY SHONAGON IMMEDIATELY IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN WORKING ON ELECTION DAY, AT ONE OF THE POLLING PLACES. 

CALL DORY AT 480-1848. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP ON THIS. It is possible to work part of the day, although it would be good if you each could commit to a 4-hour shift.

Strategize With James Carville on June 7

From the Democratic Party of New Mexico:
Yep. That James Carville -- the "Ragin Cajun." James Carville is the author of numerous books on how we can kick some GOP butt, a frequent cable television personality, and the guy who helped craft President Clinton's successful campaign message. He is coming to Albuquerque the day after the primary, Wednesday, June 7. 

Grassroots Strategy Session with James Carville
Wednesday, June 7th, 3PM
UNM Student Union, Fiesta Room (upper level, south end)

Click here to see our flyer announcing the event.

This is a chance for you to speak to him and talk about our efforts to win back the majority in the House of Representatives.  Admission is free, but space is limited. So, please RSVP to the Democratic Party of New Mexico.  You can respond via email to info@nmdemocrats.org or call 505-830-3650. We look forward to hearing from you.

NM Political Blog Hop

The New Mexico political blogging scene continues to expand and improve. Here's a rundown on what some of them are talking about as we close in on our June 6th primary election.

New Mexico Matters discusses the damaging decision by Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera to use the most stringent and patently unfair standards to toss provisional ballots in the 2004 election. Meanwhile, Cocoposts reports on the ongoing fiasco with voter cards and how Mary Herrera and Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron are responding. Heath Haussamen of Las Cruces provides a detailed report on the lastest developments in the Democratic primary PRC race between E. Shirley Baca and Sandy Jones.

New Mexico Viewpoints has significant coverage of the June 8th shareholder vote on the proposed sale of . Dem Land Commissioner primary candidate Jim Baca is providing a compelling narrative on his campaign and touting his recent endorsements from the Albuquerque Alibi and Santa Fe Reporter on Only in New Mexico.

New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman's Blog offers a text of her recent graduation speech to the UNM Biology Department on politics vs. science. The Bomb Town News Observer is covering politics and more as it happens in Los Alamos, including a funny account of an historic day. Wills4223 covers the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision trashing the rights of whistleblowers and, as usual, displays some terrific photos. Be sure to scroll down on the site.

Blogger m-pyre offers a golden Chavez splash with pizzazz and lastly, but not leastly, Joe Monahan comments on the major New Mexico primary races. He also reveals that Prez Bush will be visiting Roswell or someplace else in Southern New Mexico on primary election day on June 6th to tout his immigration reforms. Aren't we lucky?

DFA-DFNM Meetup Tonight: Ethics in Government

DON'T MISS THIS ONE! DFA-Democracy for New Mexico's regular monthly Meetup tonight in Albuquerque will focus on the timely issue of ethics in government and politics. Our panel includes MATT BRIX of Common Cause NM and JIM NOEL, Executive Director of the NM Judicial Standards Commission, both of whom are members of the Ethics Task Force appointed by Governor Richardson to examine what needs to be done to improve ethics and make recommendations for legislation to achieve it. Also on the panel are CARTER BUNDY of AFSCME and ELI LEE of Soltari.

We'll have a panel discussion and Q and A about reforming ethics laws in New Mexico that regulate campaign finance and the conduct of candidates and officeholders.

DFA-DFNM Meetup
Thursday, June 1, 7:00 PM
First Unitarian Church Social Hall
Carlisle and Comanche, Albuquerque

The Ethics Task Force met on May 30th and will meet again on June 28-29 up in Santa Fe. Anyone interested in reforming our state's antiquated and inadequate campaign finance, lobbying and accountability laws are urged to attend and keep the pressure on for genuine reform. Our discussion tonight can provide you with what you need to know about the process and how we can be effective advocates for ethics reform in New Mexico.

According to an article in the Albuquerque Journal, the task force set these reform priorities at their May 30th meeting:

• publicly financed campaigns
• caps on contributions
• legislative salaries
• a state ethics commission
• limits on gifts to candidates and public officials

The Albuquerque Tribune has more on this too. Governor Richardson has asked for a report from the group by November 1st and has stated he will use the recommendations of the task force to form the core of his legislative push for ethics and campaign reform at the next session in January. New Mexico is one of only five states that have no limits on campaign donations and one of only 11 that lacks a state ethics commission.

If you haven't yet RSVPed for tonight's Meetup, click here. To join our Meetup group and get on our email list, go here.

The DFA-Democracy for New Mexico Meetup was established in April 2003 as a Dean for America campaign Meetup. Once Howard Dean was out of the presidential race, we transformed ourselves into a progressive grassroots activism group and an information clearinghouse for progressives. We hold regular monthly Meetups on the first Thursday of each month. Our email list currently contains more than 680 people. We have loose ties to the national group Democracy for America but, like all DFA-related groups in every state of the country, we operate independently with no legal ties to DFA.