Democracy for New Mexico

Help Diane Denish Support State Rep Candidate Jeff Steinborn

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From Terri Holland, Democratic Party of Bernalillo County:
You may not be aware, the District 37 election is one of the top 3 races in the State Legislature and one of the most important battlegrounds in New Mexico this year. It’s an open seat, and Jeff has a good opportunity to win but the far right politicians and special interest are starting to fund Jeff’s opponent. It’s critical Jeff has our support so he can win and we can benefit from his leadership in the State Legislature. It’s also critical that we win this seat so that Democrats retain and expand a strong majority in Santa Fe. We’re hoping we can count on your support in this important race.

I encourage all of you to support Jeff in his fight to win this important southern district.  Jeff has been  a county leader and active member of the Dona Ana  County Democratic Party and will be a valuable asset for us in the state legislature. I hope to see you there!  Terri

State Fair Parade

The Dem candidate for land commissioner, Jim Baca, has some excellent photos of this morning's State Fair parade, including a great shot of the CodePINK contingent along the parade route. Check them out at his blog, Only in New Mexico.

Colorado Here We Come!

We're headed up to the Salida - Buena Vista area of Colorado, known as the banana belt of the state. There's a wide valley with the Front Range on the East and some of the Collegiate Peaks on the West, many of them "fourteeners." We're renting a rustic cabin (above) for a week along a creek on what used to be an historic ranch inherited by a woman when her husband died. To earn some extra money, she put in some cabins where many famous personages stayed in times past, including Zane Gray, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Alex Haley. Only three of the original cabins are left, including the one above.

This is one of our favorite parts of Colorado and we've visited many times over the years, staying in motels, camping or renting cabins. We've experienced some of every season up there and enjoyed the mountains, rivers, meadows, streams, lakes, soaking in natural hot springs, the lovely small towns and the expansive ranching landscapes. The wildlife and the stars are top-notch too.

While we're gone, I'm programming some threads to go up automatically so folks can still interact and share info. I'll post some photos and touch base if we get a chance. There's wi-fi available at Bongo Billy's coffee house and we'll probably stop in a couple times while we're up there, but no guarantees! I'm sure much will be happening politically while we're gone, but this trip was booked for some time so we're outta here, regardless.

And yes, we're taking Sunny and Bosco with us, although the seven parakeets are staying behind to watch the house. Don't kid yourself, they can be fierce with unwanted intruders! (Don't worry, there's house sitter!)

State Dem Party and Jeff Armijo File Suits in Ballot Battle

The always on top of things Heath Haussamen has the lastest along with PDF's of both complaints.

Watching Pat Lyons

Have you seen Lyons Watch yet? Republican Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons is under the magnifying glass and the most disturbing things are coming into focus. 

Patricia Madrid Wants to Know What You Think

What a terrific idea. The Patricia Madrid campaign is launching a new Sound Off citizens' web survey where people can tell the candidate how they feel about the issues. Check it out and let Madrid know what issues are important to you -- the local voter.

What a perfect tool for a candidate like Madrid, who's always been known for listening to the people and representing their concerns, instead of those pushed by lobbyists and big corporate donors. More evidence that Patricia Madrid would make a responsive, open and connected representative for people who live in New Mexico's first Congressional district. Wouldn't that be a change from the dismal status quo?

Contrast Madrid's approach with that of her Republican incumbent rival, Heather Wilson, who walks in lock-step with the Bush administration day in and day out. Wilson votes repeatedly as directed by lobbyists for the oil and gas industries, the big pharmaceutical companies and other big money donors. Independent and responsive to the real needs of real New Mexicans? Not by a long shot, Heather. Fortunately, this time around we can vote for the real thing -- Patricia Madrid.

Guest Blog: I Remember Patsy Madrid

This post was submitted by guest blogger James Nathan Post of Albuquerque:

When I was a boy in the early 50's, my family lived in married student housing at New Mexico A&M (now NMSU) in Las Cruces. Those crumbling recycled sheetrock army barracks would not pass today as migrant labor housing, but we appreciated the opportunity the school offered to my father, a young rocket engineer.  My best buddy and next door neighbor was Charles Madrid, whose little sister Patsy today is running for our Congress. Between living on the edge of the desert on the campus of an ag school and watching the V-2's go out at White Sands, it was a great place to be a kid, and I had no idea at all how little our parents had with which to start a post-war life and build a family.   

Patricia's father comes from one of the oldest Tiwa families in the valley, and her mother from one of the old Hispanic families, including a northern European line. A combat veteran WWII SeaBee, Mr. Madrid was studying agriculture, following in the footsteps of Fabian Garcia, of the little state college's first graduating class, who more than any other individual is responsible for creating our state's chile industry with the hybrids he created there. Patricia represents in person an authentic tri-cultural heritage here in this most tri-cultural of states. 

Over the years, I have watched the Madrid family build themselves a good and successful working-class American life, through their own hard work, intelligence, education, courage, honesty, and family solidarity.  Among her brothers and sisters are Vietnam veterans, teachers, farmers, businessmen, a research engineer, and a doctor. None of these accomplishments has been the result of privilege or special assistance. Every step has been earned. Their religious backgrounds run the spectrum from Catholic to the Born Again to the Native Church, and even with such differences, they are a spiritually strong and loving family, with the faith to accept each others' ways of worship.  From her family she has inherited strength, integrity, and open-mindedness that are very rare and precious today.

I remember well when in High School, Patsy attended Girls' State, and came home with a burning passion for law and statesmanship which has been the inspiration and drive of her life since.  I remember when she married a man with all the fine qualities her family had taught her to respect, and have watched as they have proved their worth and family values as parents and kin, while pursuing the most demanding of careers. She is certainly my favorite "kid from back home makes good" story, and I am thrilled to see her run for this office. 

I do not wish upon her the life of Washington DC.  I know how much more pleasant it would be for her to stay here with her family and friends in New Mexico, and to enjoy all the daily blessings that we have here, and to enjoy the rewards of a successful private practice, which would certainly be greater than the office affords.  I am sure she would be the first to agree, and so certainly the least likely to be motivated to run for office by desires for comfort or social and financial gain, even less to cheapen the integrity of her office for such gains. She is willing to undertake all the hardships of living there instead of here, and of daily dealing with our nation's most demanding problems, because she still burns passionately about serving the law with honest statesmanship.

I personally know of no one in our state's political arena whom I would rather see go there to represent us in today's multi-cultural, class-spanning, religiously diverse, history-honoring, forward-looking America than Patricia Madrid.

Heather Wilson's Campaign
Until recently, I have been pleased to say about this upcoming election that I considered it a win/win situation for New Mexico, as both she and Heather Wilson would be good for the office, whatever their particular positions might be on the issues. As a former military officer and veteran combat pilot, I have respected Wilson's military record as an Academy graduate administrative officer. As a Libertarian with some right-wing leanings, I've had no great problem with her strongly partisan role as a voice for the right, and supporter of the current administration's agenda.

I have become terribly disappointed in Wilson with this campaign, however.  It is no surprise she has the great advantage of national fundraising support through the help of President Bush, and so should be expected to have a well-funded media campaign.  It is a shock to me, however, to see she has apparently also been taking her campaign strategy from the president's advisors as well.  Perhaps I have missed something, but so far I believe one hundred percent (that's 100%) of Wilson's campaign on the tube has been not just negative, but simply crude and utterly untruthful muck-slinging.

There is not a word in any of Wilson's ads about what she herself offers to the voter as opposed to Madrid's position.  Each of those shameful ads has consisted entirely of deliberately unflattering pictures of Patricia, and the almost-libelous (wink wink) insinuation that she abused her office as Attorney General as party to cheap financial corruption which in fact she was largely responsible for exposing in the state recently.  For the fund-raiser's dollar, the voter gets shown a smarmy little fingerwagging at the crudely crafted image of a stupid and corrupt local Mexican girl in over her head -- and nothing else.   

I find it tragic (as I did when my jet-jock hero Cunningham shot himself down in flames for mini-bling chump-change recently) to see Wilson lower herself to being used by partisan manipulators to conduct a cheap, shallow, and dirty-dealt campaign, especially knowing that having worked with Patricia for several years, she is well aware the sneaky allegations are wholly unfounded, as well as the image, and her own participation in such low-grade character assassination is dishonest, unjust, and reprehensible.  I find it tragic for Heather Wilson, whatever partisan tactic or personal trophy might be motivating her, because even if she wins the election, she knows she has sacrificed something very precious in herself, exactly that which she has almost-accused (wink wink) Patsy Madrid of lacking.  Personally, I thought Wilson had more class.

Who Should Get Your Vote?
If the issues matter to the voter, I would say vote for the one who represents your position on the issues, whatever you think about their character.  If your views on the issues sometimes span both sides of the political aisle, and you are more concerned about the personal integrity and character of the person holding the office, then as one who has known Patricia and her family for half a century, I could not more highly recommend you vote for her.

Editor's Notes:

This is a guest blog by James Nathan Post, who describes himself this way:

"I graduated from Las Cruces High School in 1961, spent two years at NMIMT in Socorro, then entered the service first as a Marine jet pilot, and then an Army helicopter gunship pilot in Vietnam in 1968. As a pilot, actor, and writer, I lived in California, Arizona, and Costa Rica, and spent five years as member of a Las Vegas sportsbook gambling team. I now live and write full time in Albuquerque, and have more than a dozen books in print, available on my website and other online booksellers: www.zianet.com/postpubco."

Democrat Patricia Madrid is running against Republican incumbent Rep. Heather Wilson for the Congressional seat in NM-01

If you'd like to submit a post for possible publication as a guest blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the main page.

Armijo to File Suit Today to Stay on Ballot, Cancel SCC Meeting

An Albuquerque Tribune article reports that embattled State Auditor candidate Jeff Armijo plans to file suit today in state court against the decision to take him off the ballot, and also to stop the NM Democratic Party from holding its State Central Committee meeting Saturday to choose a replacement. Some of his supporters may also file a suit in U.S. District Court:

Democratic state auditor candidate Jeff Armijo plans to pursue his spot on this fall's ballot in state court, according to an announcement sent to The Tribune this afternoon by his attorney.

Attorney Paul Kienzle said Armijo supporters also are considering a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to contest what they say is disenfranchisement.

"The federal district court may have the final word on the matter," the release says.

... "Until this past Tuesday, the withdrawal rule was that a candidate had to provide a signed, written statement," Kienzle said. "Those laws, rules and customs now mean nothing. Political expediency and political power brokers determine who is on the general election ballot."

The Secretary of State's Office says there is nothing in state election code outlining the steps a candidate must take. Nothing is in law requiring a letter be sent to the office when a candidate withdraws, Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, a Democrat, said Wednesday.

Albuquerque's KRQE News 13 reported this on the story yesterday:

We're very confident that we're going to be able to successfully challenge the decision that the secretary of state made so I can stay on the ballot as the Democratic candidate for state auditor,” [Jeff ]Armijo told KRQE News 13.

Armijo insisted he still is the Democratic and said he plans to march in the New Mexico State Fair Parade promoting his campaign on Saturday.

Visit their website for more, including video of yesterday's newscast coverage of the story.

Another Auditor Candidate in the Mix?

According to a Kate Nash article in today's Albuquerque Tribune, Vince Baca will be tossing his hat in the ring to run for State Auditor on the Dem ticket. He joins Hector Balderas, Daniel Ivey-Soto and, perhaps, Jeff Armijo. As noted in previous posts, Jeff claims he's still on the ballot and he may or may not put his name before the Dem State Central Committee again, depending on whether he gets a court ruling and what the court decides. Excerpt regarding Saturday's SCC meeting:

"It's going to be interesting," said Vince Baca, one of at least three Democrats who are expected to present themselves as candidates at the meeting.

If Armijo attends - which Baca expects - he would be the fourth candidate. Committee members will select one as their official candidate for auditor.

Baca, a 44-year-old president of a strategic planning and resource development company, is looking forward to introducing himself to committee members Saturday.

So is Daniel Ivey-Soto, a 39-year-old Albuquerque lawyer and former chief counsel for the Democratic Party who wants the job.

Add state Rep. Hector Balderas, a Democrat from Wagon Mound, to the list.

Two Speakers to Address Current Middle East Crisis

From the website of Stop the War Machine:
Richard Becker
The Expanding U.S. War in the Middle East:
Are Iran and Syria Next?
Saturday, September 9, 2006, 7 PM
Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice
202 Harvard SE,  ABQ
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David Barsamian
The Current Crisis in the Middle East
Saturday, September 16, 2006, 7 PM
Smith Brasher Hall
Corner University Blvd and Coal Ave. SE, ABQ

See below for more information on the speakers. Admission is Free. Sponsors: Stop the War Machine stopthewarmachine@comcast.net, UNM Student Socialist Coalition, Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance (formerly AJPA). For more information: 505-268-9557.

Richard Becker is the Western Regional Coordinator of the International A.N.S.W.E.R.-Act Now to Stop War and End Racism-Coalition. A.N.S.W.E.R. has organized numerous mass protests of hundreds of thousands of people against the war in Iraq, from mid-2002 to the present. Becker has been a central organizer of, and featured speaker at, many of the West Coast mass mobilizations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In December 2005, Becker traveled to Damascus, Syria to participate in a conference on Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return. One of the few U.S. activists to visit Syria in recent years, Becker has spoken out in opposition to the U.S.-led campaign for regime change in that country at numerous public forums and media events. (email Becker at rbecker17@yahoo.com)

David Barsamian is the host of the syndicated Alternative Radio, aired on KUNM on Saturdays at 6 PM. He is the recipient of the Upton Sinclair Award, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center Award and recently he was honored with a Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation, Santa Fe. His latest books are with Noam Chomsky "Imperial Ambitions" and with Howard Zinn "Original Zinn." AR is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series of public events beginning with Howard Zinn and the Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall. (email Barsamian at info@alternativeradio.net)

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