Democracy for New Mexico

Block the Vote: Tonight on PBS' NOW

NOW, the weekly PBS news magazine, will air 'Block the Vote' tonight, a segment focusing on some of the many tactics being employed to block the participation of voters, especially minorities, the poor, the elderly and the disabled. KUNM KNME (Channel 5) will broadcast NOW at 8:00 PM tonight, September 1st, and PBS will provide a video stream of the show after it airs. To read more about tonight's show or watch the video later, visit the PBS website.

Stick a fork in Republican Rep. Heather Wilson of Albuquerque: She's done

Heather the Enabler with Bush

Believe it or not, I didn't come up with the lines that form my headline. It was the Albuquerque Tribune's deputy editorial page editor, Larry Spohn, who wrote about the NM-01 race between Republican incumbent Heather Wilson and Democratic challenger Patricia Madrid in an op-ed published yesterday entitled "Fooling no one: Wilson's election is far from certainty, thanks to Bush, Iraq." You really should read the entire piece, but here's some excerpts to whet your appetite:

... I believe that at the end of the day, the American people - including District 1 voters in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County - will do the right thing. They will use the ultimate power of their votes to hold their politicians, including incumbent Wilson, fully accountable for the worst presidency in American history.

Wilson has enabled that presidency. The American people are paying a horrific price for Wilson and a Republican Congress that have failed miserably in their Constitutional duty to all the people - to check and balance raw presidential power and stand up to a secretive, dishonest president who chooses routinely, I'd say, to break the law.

Patricia Madrid: Part of the solution

More from the op-ed:

Despite Wilson's early efforts to smear Madrid with the state treasurer scandal in Santa Fe, it's going to be all about her Washington, D.C., sellout to big businesses, such as the oil and drug industries. And about her complicity in an administration that has waged a horrific, unjust war; turned its back on middle America; run up the national debt with abandon; compromised our economy and our environment; and used fear, deception, distortion and paper patriotism to govern.

... I believe Americans today finally get it, as is evidenced by Bush's free-fall in the polls and the stunning upsets that have befallen Bush-policy incumbents - notably another pretender, Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

They speak to Lincoln's gold nugget: "You can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time; but, you can't fool all the people all of the time."

Like Bush, Wilson has been fooling a lot of the people much of the time. But this November she faces Abe's pendulum - voters who are not fooled anymore. They'll hold her accountable for not holding herself, her party, her Congress and her president accountable. On this, Madrid's no fool.

If you'd like to help this scenario come true, go volunteer some time or donate some money to the Madrid campaign. It's now or never. There are only 67 days until the November 7th election and absentee (mail in) voting begins October 10th. Be a part of the solution and help us take back the U.S. House.