Democracy for New Mexico

Laura E. Sanchez Named DPNM Executive Director

From the Democratic Party of NM:
Brian S. Colón, Chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, announced on Friday that Laura E. Sanchez was his choice for the position of Executive Director. Sanchez is a native of Deming, New Mexico. Her appointment comes at a critical time for the Democratic Party as it gears up for the 2008 election in what is considered a key state in the race for the White House. 

"Laura Sanchez is a model New Mexico Democrat. Her education and experience will help me advance the electoral prospects of Democrats at all levels. Ms. Sanchez's knowledge of the state, her life story, legal background, and work experience in legislative bodies and with advocacy groups make her tremendously qualified for this demanding job," said Chairman Colón. 

"I am honored and thrilled to have this exciting opportunity," said Ms. Sanchez. "The Republicans have sought to systematically tear apart the fabric of our communities: gutting workplace protections, under-funding the educational system, pillaging our environment, and neglecting the health care crisis in America, not to mention continuing to send our young service men and women off to fight a misguided war. Clearly, we need a Democrat in the White House. As Executive Director, I will work to ensure that New Mexico goes blue in November 2008, and elects a Democratic President." 

Ms. Sanchez comes to the DPNM from her position as Energy Solutions Policy Fellow for the Natural Resources Defense Council. She is an attorney who worked as a Senate Majority Analyst assigned to the Judiciary Committee in the 2007 session. Ms. Sanchez has practiced in public finance and commercial real estate transactions in Albuquerque since 2004. During the 2006 campaign, she directed the Get-Out-The-Vote operation for a statewide initiative for the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island.

Ms. Sanchez received a Masters in Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science degree in political science from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She held a number of political and public service positions in Arizona including working for the Pima County Community Services Department, Congressman Ed Pastor, the Office of the Pima County Attorney, and the Arizona State Senate.

Ms. Sanchez received her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. During law school, she clerked for the National Partnership for Women & Families in Washington, DC. She also has experience working for the California Legislative Analyst's Office in Sacramento.

"Selecting someone to lead the staff and run the day to day operations of the state party is one of -- if not the -- most important decisions of my tenure," said Chairman Colón. "I campaigned for the position of Chair on the idea of being more fair, energetic, and inclusive, and I am proud that the executive director selection process has met this standard. I am grateful for the executive director search committee's work with each and every one of the 29 applicants for the position."

Open Thread and Hello From Chicago

I've been hanging out in Chicago since YearlyKos ended, seeing friends and sightseeing in my original home town, so I haven't posted anything but the items I set up to post automatically before I left. Sorry to neglect you all but everyone needs some time off the net!

Let's just say for now that YearlyKos was absolutely fabulous, fascinating, educational and fun. It was stimulating to be among netroots activists from all over the country, witness a lively presidential debate up close, attend workshops with prominent bloggers, experts and media, hear Howard Dean give another barnburner of a speech, witness the passion of Wesley Clark for ending the Iraq war and so much more. Gov. Richardson was all over the place greeting conventioners, our U.S. Senate candidate Don Wiviott was much in evidence and was one of the cohosts of a packed netroots candidate gathering, and we celebrated with the Teamsters right on the edge of Lake Michigan. I'll be writing more on all this when I return this weekend.

In the meantime, there's been rambling through Lincoln and Grant Parks, strolling harbors, taking in lakefront wonders, eating Italian beefs and Chicago's famous pizza and even watching fireworks just beyond the hotel room windows. Today there's a trip on a three-masted schooner, a stop at the Art In, stitute and partaking the culinary delights of Greektown or Little Italy. Tomorrow the plan is to visit Millenium Park along Michigan Avenue.

Hope all is well back in the Land of Enchantment. It's been hot and very humid during most of my time here. I forgot how wavy my humidity-fluffed hair can get....

Of course the capitulation of too many Dems who voted for the awful expansion of the FISA wiretapping act angered and disappointed me no end, as I'm sure it did you. Go ahead and comment on this or anything else that's going on as this is an OPEN THREAD.

Now Available: Video of Tweeti Blancett Event for Drilling Santa Fe

To view videos of Tweeti Blancett's recent presentation for Drilling Santa Fe, go to their website at https://www.drillingsantafe.com or use this direct link. The Drilling for Santa Fe site has quite a collection of information about the possibility of extensive oil and gas drilling in Santa Fe County, what such drilling can do to the land, a petition and much more. Our previous posts about this issue can be found here and here.

Guest Blog: Take the Greed Out of Politics

This is a guest blog by Judith Binder of Skills for Democracy, Albuquerque:
Universal Health Care - Since the early 1990s, Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D. Economist from Princeton University, has maintained that "greed" must be taken out of politics if we are to have appropriate health care in this country. The pharmaceutical industry, hospitals for profit, insurance companies, and corruptible politicians should not be allowed to control the legislation.

Clean Elections will create a healthy nation—an economically stable nation.

Reinhardt was in Albuquerque in 1992 or 1993 keynoting a health care forum. You can find his views at RSNA News (PDF), page 10.

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Judith Binder. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their views on issues of interest, and don't necessarily express our views. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the page.

More Health Care Community Forums Scheduled

More health care community forums, sponsored by the Health Care for All campaign and other groups. Attend and express your views on universal health care in New Mexico:

Farmington: Aug. 16, 9-11am and 6-8pm (location to be determined). Call the Community Health Care Fund, 505-564-3628.

Taos: Aug. 22, 6-8pm (location to be determined). Call the Taos Co. Health Council, 505-776-8705.

Rio Rancho: Aug. 23, 7-8:30pm at the Meadowlark Senior Center, 4330 Meadowlark Lane. Call the Sandoval Co. Community Health Alliance, 505-771-7941.

Las Vegas: Aug. 28, 4-6pm at Luna Community College, 366 Luna Dr. Call the San Miguel Co. Health Council, 505-454-1401

Carlsbad: Sept. 10, 5:30-7:30pm, at NMSU-Carlsbad, Room 101, 1500 University Dr. Call the Eddy Co. Community Health Council, 505-887-9511.

Bayard: Sept. 11, 6-8pm at the Bayard Community Center, 290 Hurley Ave. Call the NMSW NM Council of Governments, 505-388-1509.

Santa Fe: Sept. 18, 10am-12pm at St John’s Methodist, 1200 Old Pecos Trail (pending) and 5:30-7:30pm at Santa Fe County Chambers, 102 Grant St. (confirmed). Call the Santa Fe Co. Health and Human Services Dept., 505-992-9840.

Roswell: Sept. 20, 2-4pm at ENMU-Roswell, Occupational Tech. Center Bldg., Room 124. Call Barbara Thompson, 505-623-61723.

Los Alamos: Sept. 20, 7-9pm at Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Ave. Call the League of Women Voters, 505-662-5900.

Gallup: Oct. 4 (time and location to be determined). Call the McKinley Community Health Alliance, 505-863-5107.

Citizens Restless About Real Health Care Reform

Jerry Ortiz y Pino has an excellent column in last week's alibi about the recent community forum in Albuquerque on NM health care reform sponsored by Health Care for All -- and about Gov. Bill Richardson's stance on reform. I highly recommend you read the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:

... the event did have an emotional highlight. It came when a speaker cautioned those in attendance that the prospects for true reform of our health care system were dimmed significantly by a pronouncement from Gov. Richardson that he would never approve any measure that didn’t include a role for private insurance. The chorus of boos, hisses and angry shouts that greeted this statement was immediate and deafening.

Speculation afterward on why Richardson would have made such an unpopular public statement at a point in the process far, far before he needed to take any position on it at all (to say nothing about it also being in the midst of an uphill campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination) ranged from the cynical to the outright libelous.

Clearly, it is a stance he might want to reconsider, as no other issue likely to come up in the campaign would be as effective in propelling him up into the top tier of racehorses as would an enthusiastic endorsement of single-payer health care.

... But our governor is quoted by his health care advisor, Michelle Welby, as believing that the 80 percent of New Mexicans who have health coverage are “happy with the current system,” so he won't likely want to end the blood leech role played in our current health financing system by our legion of private insurers.

That is, unless he begins to listen to the thousands who have coverage but who are desperately unhappy with it--citizens like Pam Parker, a businesswoman in Taos, who tearfully detailed for a Legislative Committee last week how her eight-year struggle with breast cancer has left her family financially devastated because her insurer raises the premiums and deductibles annually so that she now pays $1,500 a month … for a policy with a $5,000 deductible. She doesn’t dare switch as her health history makes her essentially uninsurable by any company other than the one she has now.

... The War over Health Care will soon be bigger news than the War in Iraq. Gov. Richardson needs to switch sides. [emphasis mine]

I couldn't agree more.

Make Your Views Known
Right now, Gov. Richardson's presidential campaign website is soliciting questions from the public in a sort of continuation of the recent CNN-YouTube Dem presidential forum. to submit a comment or question about why he has said he won't support a health care reform plan that doesn't preserve a strong role for insurers. If we want an affordable universal health care plan here and nationally, we need to be relentless in pushing for a single-payer type plan (like the NM Health Security Act) that removes the number one cause of rising health care costs -- the for-profit brokers and insurers.

The NM Legislature will take up health care reform at the 30-day session in January, and the Interim Health and Human Services committee is meeting now in various parts of the state to discuss the issue. Contact members of the committee and your legislators and let them know where you stand.

Sign up here with What If You Knew, to stay current on what's happening at the grassroots level to advocate for an effective universal care plan. Join the Health Action NM alert list to get news on Health Care for All New Mexicans activities.

Click here to get the facts on why single-payer universal coverage is the only effective way to cover everyone while keeping costs down -- in a detailed article by none other than noted economist and New York Times journalist Paul Krugman.

Health Care Reform Community Forums
Health Care for All has held two recent, heavily attended health care town halls in Albuquerque and Las Cruces. Such community forums on health care reform in NM will be held in many other parts of the state. In August, town halls are scheduled for Farmington, Taos and Las Vegas, NM, with more on the way. Click here for Health Care for All's calendar of events for more info, and pledge to attend and express yourself at a forum in your area.

Bill Maher: The Decider

The new HBO special by Bill Maher, Part 5 of 8 on YouTube. Click to see the rest. We all need a laugh ....

DFA Offers Free Night School Direct from YearlyKos to Your Computer

From Democracy for America:
Democracy for American folks will be in Chicago for YearlyKos, the annual bloggers' conference. I know that not everyone can take off the weekend, so I talked to some of the event organizers and to some of the country's top political bloggers. Together we figured out a way to bring you the energy and excitement of the conference to you in the comfort of your own home – DFA Night School!

Building an Open Progressive Community
Thursday, August 2nd, 4:30-5:30pm Mountain Daylight Time
RSVP: https://www.dfalink.com/event.php?id=22051

That's right, even if you aren't going to be in Chicago, you can attend without having to make the trip or paying a dime. We're excited to announce that DFA Night School will be taking place live from YearlyKos this Thursday at 4:30 PM Mountain Daylight Time. Chris Bowers from www.openleft.com and Katrina Baker from Living Liberally will join us as we learn how to Build an Open Progressive Community.

You and I both know that the Internet has fundamentally changed how people engage in the political process. This Thursday we'll focus on how you can use online tools to build up a progressive community in your area. The session focuses on using online tools and offline actions, locally, to build an open progressive community. Then we'll show you how to leverage that community to engage your local Democratic Party, making it more active and responsive to progressive values.

This special DFA Night School event will be brought to you live from the YearlyKos convention hall, so it should prove to be an exciting, unique experience. Join us as DFA brings YearlyKos to you.

Night School is DFA's no-cost online training program. After you sign up, you will receive the information for our nationwide toll free conference call. The presentation includes a slideshow you can view in your browser or download and print out beforehand. Join us as DFA brings YearlyKos to your living room.

Arshad Hasan, Training Director
Democracy for America

P.S. If you enjoyed the last Night School sessions on fundraising, the DVD version is now available!

https://contribute.democracyforamerica.com/nightschool

Every purchase helps us continue to keep Night School free for everyone. I'm always looking to be innovative in our training program, and your support allows me to continue to trainings online and in person. Order your DVD today!

YearlyKos

I'm headed to YearlyKos at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, so things may be a bit slow around here for awhile. I set up some auto-posts and I'll try to check in when I can, but no guarantees. There's so much going on at the convention that I think down time and web time will be hard to muster. Very exciting.

Lots of sources will be covering the gathering so you can follow things right from your couch or computer. A YearlyKos follow it at home page will have frequently updated links to all the coverage they know about. Both CSPAN and CNN plan TV and web video coverage -- no details yet. Talking Points Memo will have something called TPMtv with interviews and live coverage. So will PoliticsTV and UstreamTV online. No doubt participants will be uploading stuff to YouTube and flickr. And I'm sure just about every progressive blog will be on the story to some extent.

There are a multitude of panel discussions, workshops, roundtables and film screenings, which you can browse in the convention schedule. Major events, official and unofficial, include (all times Central Daylight Time):

Wednesday, August 1

• Evening: Various receptions and parties
• 8-9:30 PM: DFA Health Care Forum with Jim Dean, health care advocates and experts

Thursday, August 2

• All day: Interest group and blogger caucuses, panels, workshops, roundtables, films
• 7-9 PM: Kickoff keynote speech by DNC Chair Howard Dean, with welcomes from Markos and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• 9-10 PM: DFA Grassroots Victory Caucus

Friday, August 3

• All day: roundtables, panel discussions, workshops, films
• 8-9 AM: Keynote speech by Wesley Clark
• Luncheon speech by Andy Stern of SEIU
• 5:30-7:30 PM: Netroots Candidate Celebration (one of the cosponsors is Don Wiviott, Dem candidate for NM Senate)

Saturday, August 4

• All day: roundtables, panel discussions, workshops, films
• 8-9AM: Ask the Leaders Forum with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Harry Reid, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Rep. Rahm Emanuel
• 1-2:45 PM: Presidential Candidate Forum with Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Mike Gravel
• 3-3:45 PM: Individual breakout sessions with presidential candidates
• 4:30-6:30 PM: Teamsters' Rally and BBQ
• 7-10 PM: Closing Keynote by Markos plus surprises

Sunday, August 5

• 11AM-1PM: Bloggers' Brunch

Other Info:

• An unbelievable list of Speakers, Panel & Workshop Leaders
• Exhibitors