Democracy for New Mexico

Eric Griego & Tim Keller at Meetup Last Nite: How We Can Achieve Reforms

District 14 State Senate candidate Eric Griego speaks at DFA-DFNM Meetup

District 17 State Senate candidate Tim Keller addresses the group

In addition to a top-notch presentation on voter demographics and GOTV by Jennifer Ford of America Votes at last night's Albuquerque DFA-DFNM Meetup, the group heard from Eric Griego and Tim Keller. Eric and Tim are both passionate and engaging Dems who are challenging Dem incumbents in State Senate primary races set for June 3, 2008.

Eric Griego on the importance of electing Dems to the Legislature who will support a reform agenda

Both Griego and Keller stressed their strong commitment to needed reforms related to ethics, campaign finance, health care, education and a living wage. They explained how crucial it is for those who advocate change to band together and work hard to replace legislators more interested in protecting the status quo than reforming a broken system. Only grassroots action and determination can elect Democrats who will work on behalf of the people instead of the monied special interests. Whether or not we live in a given candidate's district, we can volunteer, make a small donation and help get the word out to support their campaigns. If they win, we'll all benefit -- not just constituents in their districts.

Griego on how we achieved public financing in Albuquerque and how he'll make ethics and campaign finance reform top priorities in the legislature

It seems clear that until we can get big money from big donors out of the election system, it will remain difficult to enact much-needed legislation on things like universal health care and a true living wage. Strong citizen support won't necessarily translate into the passage of popular measures unless we elect more Democrats who are willing to work hard to first get ethics and campaign finance reform signed into law.

If we consider ourselves to be grassroots activists, we must do more than read the blogs and go to meetings. To get people-powered candidates elected, we have to do our part. Do it now:

Visit the campaign websites of these two candidates to get actively involved in their races:

• Eric Griego, who's running in Senate District 14
• Tim Keller, whos' running in Senate District 17

To see our previous coverage on 2008 New Mexico legislative races, visit our archive. Photos and video by M.E. Broderick. Sorry the video clips aren't of better quality. We need to get a real video camera!

Jason Marks: PRC/Feldman Health Insurance Bill Makes New Mexico a Leader in Consumer Protection

This is a guest blog by Jason Marks, NM Public Regulation Commission Chairman, discussing an important health insurance reform bill just signed by Gov. Bill Richardson. The legislation is getting national praise and attention, including including a front-page story in USA Today:

As everyone knows by now, the 2008 New Mexico Legislature was unable to come to consensus on any of several competing healthcare reform proposals. Except that’s not entirely true. Moving through the Legislature outside of the media spotlight, a health insurance reform bill that originated with the PRC and its then-Chairman Ben Ray Luján, was passed and signed into law. This legislation, Senate Bill 226, sponsored by Senator Dede Feldman (D-Alb, below left) puts New Mexico into the forefront of consumer protection in at least two areas that help families obtain and keep needed coverage.

New Mexico has become the second state in the country to enact a law limiting insurers’ ability to rescind health insurance policies and/or deny paying claims based on mis-statements on the insured’s original application for coverage. Until Senate Bill 226, insurance companies could retroactively rescind coverage during the first two years of a policy after a patient developed an expensive medical condition that the insurer didn’t want to cover. The insurer could decide that they’d rather refund your premiums and stick you with the responsibility for paying large medical bills. The insurer merely had to point to a relevant mistake or omission on the original application for coverage -- even if that mistake was unintentional. The PRC/Feldman bill raises the standard of proof so as to require the insurer to show that the applicant’s statements or omissions were willful or fraudulent.

Senate Bill 226 also extends the allowable lapse in “creditable coverage” from 63 to 95 days. Currently, if someone loses coverage under a group plan and applies for alternative coverage within 63 days, the period during which the individual was not covered is counted against any waiting periods on pre-existing conditions. The bill allows more time to seek alternate coverage. Several other states have increased their maximum lapse to around 90 days, but at 95 days, New Mexico has the most consumer-friendly standard in the nation. Lastly, Senate Bill 226 raises the minimum cap on coverage for policies under the N.M. Minimum Healthcare Protection Act from $50,000 to $100,000.

This all started during the summer of 2007, when PRC Chairman Ben Ray Luján (right) arranged for several PRC discussions on the subject of healthcare and health insurance reform. With unanimous support from the Commission, Luján directed the PRC’s Insurance Division to look for ways to improve health insurance coverage for New Mexico families. As the options began to come together, Commissioner Luján, our Superintendent of Insurance, Mo Chavez (below left), and I met with Senator Feldman to discuss legislative approaches to healthcare reform in New Mexico. Senate Bill 226 was the result. The bill’s enactment fixes the three “gotchas” that have kept needed health insurance coverage from some families while we wait for comprehensive healthcare reform.

Although Senate Bill 226 received little local media coverage, the PRC/Feldman health insurance reform legislation has drawn national attention, including a front-page story in USA Today, coverage in trade journals, and inquiries from ABC Nightly News.

The most important part of the story, is of course, that the reforms that have now been signed into law by Governor Richardson will provide real benefits to consumers. But almost as important to the long term is the change that this effort signifies at the PRC’s Insurance Division. Only two years ago, a different Superintendent of Insurance was in office and his main legislative priority that year was a bill to relax certain regulatory standards so that troubled insurance companies could relocate to New Mexico. Lobbyists were involved, as were rumors of campaign donations.

Fast forward to today, where we are seeing the fruits of commitments Commissioner Luján and I made to clean up the Insurance Division, reorient it more towards protecting and serving consumers, and to appoint a replacement Superintendent of Insurance who shared our values and vision. New Mexico may not have achieved all the healthcare reform progress that was hoped for this past year (or that is needed). But we have made to a point where we are getting national recognition for our leadership in protecting insurance consumers, and not for our regulatory failings and scandals.

This is a guest blog by Jason Marks, Chairman of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. Commissioner Marks is running for reelection in November and has qualified for public campaign funding for his race. Fantastic. To learn more, visit his website.

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

NM-01 Dem Congressional Candidate Forum This Saturday

The Democratic Women of Bernalilllo County are hosting a forum for the Democratic candidates for U.S. House in CD1 on Saturday, March 8, at 3:00 PM at Room 2401 at the UNM Law School at 1117 Stanford NE in Albuquerque. Click for a map. The forum will be moderated by NM Attorney General Gary King. All are welcome to attend and learn more about Martin Heinrich, Michelle Lujan Grisham, Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Robert Pidcock.

DFA-DFNM Meetup Tonight: Jennifer Ford, Eric Griego, Tim Keller

It's that time again. Our regular monthly Albuquerque DFA-DFNM Meetup is set for tonight, March 6 at 7:00 PM at the Social Hall of the First Unitarian Church at Carlisle and Comanche. If you'll be attending, join the group and/or RSVP now.

This Meetup we'll hear from Jennifer Ford, Executive Director of the New Mexico chapter of America Votes, on the group's study on local voter demographics and more as we gear up for encouraging participation in the coming elections. Click to check out the many local organizations, including DFNM, that are members of the America Votes Coalition.

Two progressive Dem primary challengers for the New Mexico Legislature will also be reaching out to our group: Former City Councilor and mayoral candidate Eric Griego is running for State Senate in District 14 in the S. Valley/Downtown area. And fresh face Tim Keller just announced his candidacy for State Senate in District 17 in the SE Heights.

If we want to get rid of some of the "dead wood" status-quo Dems who've been blocking progress in the Legislature on issues like public campaign financing, ethics reform and achieving universal health coverage, we need to help more and better Dems get elected to replace them.

We can and should support progressive candidates like these even if we don't live in their districts. We'll soon be conducting a process that will provide DFA-DFNM endorsements in several legislative races including these two, so it's important to take advantage of this opportunity to get to know these candidates and their positions.

We'll also be discussing what's on your minds during this exciting time to be a Democrat. Come on down.

(Updated) More on Allegations About Vote Buying at NM GOP Delegate Elections

UPDATE: At 3:00 PM today, KKOB radio's Pat Frisch will discuss the alleged NM GOP vote buying at the Party's ward conventions last month, along with the resulting controversies. Frisch is filling in for Jim Villanucci, who's on vacation. You can listen to the show online or on AM radio at 770.
**********
Local and national blog posts are proliferating about the story broken by Dennis Domrzalski regarding allegations of vote buying at the recent NM GOP delegate ward elections and KKOB's decision to pull Laura MacCallum's news coverage of the allegations. MacCallum quit her news anchor job at the radio station in response. I previously posted on the story a few days ago.

I don't have time to write more about this right now because I have some business to take care of this morning, but I'll get back to it later today. In the meantime, I thought I'd publish a recent Democratic Party of New Mexico press release on the story:

HEATHER WILSON DOESN’T REFUTE ROLL IN VOTE-BUYING SCHEME

DPNM Calls on Senate Candidate to Answer Charges Directly

Albuquerque – The Democratic Party of New Mexico today called on U.S. Senate candidate Heather Wilson to directly answer charges that she bought votes at a recent Bernalillo County Republican Party delegate nominating convention.

“Once again, Heather Wilson is caught in an ethically compromising situation in which she faces allegations of manipulating the system to come out ahead in an election,” DPNM Chairman Brian Colon said today. “This time, she refuses to directly answer the charge that she bought delegate votes and her silence on such a serious charge is incriminating.”

On Monday, allegations of intra-Republican vote buying continued to surface on 27-year veteran news reporter Dennis Domrzalski’s blog. Domrzalski’s post included accounts from former New Mexico Governor Dave Cargo, State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones and former KKOB radio reporter Laura McCallum indicating that people who showed up had been paid by Heather Wilson and Darren White’s campaigns.

“Cargo said that over the course of the meeting many of the participants said that they were from Wilson’s senate campaign and from Bernalillo Country Sheriff Darren White’s congressional campaign,” Domrzalski reported. “Several people told him that they were being paid $35-an-hour (for two hours) by their campaigns and that the campaigns had also paid their $30 registration fees.”

Wilson’s senate campaign has not refuted the charges.

“Allegations of vote-buying should not be taken so lightly,” said Colon. They cut to the heart of our nation’s democracy and electoral process. In fact, this is not the first time Heather Wilson has been caught engaging in ethically ambiguous behavior. Heather Wilson has established a clear pattern of ethically compromising actions that simply do not reflect the values of New Mexico voters.”

In 2006 Heather Wilson proved ethically challenged when she personally called former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to pressure him to reveal details and expedite a pending investigation during her 2006 reelection campaign.

Said Iglesias, “I received a call from Heather Wilson. She said ‘what can you tell me about sealed indictments.’ The second she said any questions about sealed indictments, red flags went up in my head, because as you know, we cannot talk about indictments until they’re made public. In general, we specifically cannot talk about a sealed indictment.”

When asked if he felt “pressured during that call” by Sen. Chuck Schumer during a March, 2007 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Iglesias responded, “Yes, sir. I did.”

Although she has claimed a constituent asked her to place the call to Iglesias, Heather Wilson has refused to publicly identify the mysterious individual.

Following Wilson's call, Iglesias was subsequently fired by the Bush Administration in a purge that resulted in the questionable firing of at least nine U.S. Attorneys nationally.

In a piece published by the New York Times on March 21, 2007, entitled “Why I Was Fired,” Iglesias cited the phone call from Congresswoman Heather Wilson.

He also told The Associated Press, “I know it’s not performance-related, I know it’s not misconduct. What does that leave? Politics.”

Laura Paskus on Ballot Booth Woes

In the aftermath of our recent Democratic presidential caucus, Laura Paskus takes an indepth look at New Mexico's election system and its problems past and present in this week's Santa Fe Reporter. She tries to find an answer to the question, "Can New Mexico Run a Successful Election?"

With critical presidential, Congressional and local elections on tap this coming November, citizens and advocacy groups here and all over the nation are questioning whether we can trust the voting systems that are crucial to our democracy. What can we do to help ensure the integrity of our elections? The first step has to be to learn more about how they work.

I'm not providing any excerpts from Laura's piece because you really need to read the entire article. Comments?

Eschewing the Dash-for-Cash: Marks' Re-Election First to Qualify for Public Financing in 2008

Public Regulation Commission Chairman Jason Marks has announced that his reelection campaign qualifies for public financing. Chairman Marks’ campaign is the first PRC campaign in 2008 to meet all the requirements in order to receive public campaign financing. Marks’ campaign filed over 400 five-dollar qualifying contributions with the Secretary of State’s office last week, along with other required forms and certifications, and quickly learned that more than enough of the contributions have been officially confirmed as coming from registered voters in the district, an essential requirement in qualifying for public financing.

Marks’ reelection campaign displayed strong and timely effort in gathering the required qualifying contributions. Chairman Marks explains, “the help of volunteers, along with a strong showing of support from voters throughout the Albuquerque area, and from all political parties, allowed us to submit more than enough qualifying contributions . . . and to do it well before the final deadline of March 18, 2008. Everything is now in place for us to receive campaign funds from the Secretary of State immediately following ballot qualifying, which is also on March 18.”

“Public financing of elections is the best way yet devised to remove the undue influence money on has our democratic system,” per Marks. With the prospect that his successful campaign this year will lead to the expansion of public financing to more New Mexico elected offices in the future, he emphasizes what it means for his campaign today. “Right now, qualifying for public financing means that our PRC reelection campaign can focus on the concerns of voters between now and November and not on the dash-for-cash.”

Jason Marks is currently Chairman of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. He's running for reelection to a second four-year term on the PRC from District 1 in the Albuquerque area. To learn more about Jason Marks, visit his website.

To see our previous coverage of this race, visit our archive.

(Updated) BradBlog, Crooks & Liars Pick Up on NM GOP Vote Buying Story

BradBlog has now picked up the story about alleged vote buying at the New Mexico Republican Party ward conventions by the Heather Wilson and Darren White campaigns. On Monday, I posted about the scandal broken by Dennis Domrzalski, as did other local blogs including (who also posted about it on Daily Kos), m-pyre and ClearlyNewMexico.

I wonder if the campaigns will ever be pressured by the authorities to provide the truth about what happened. I wonder, too, if KKOB will ever be pushed to explain why they pulled the reports on this by news anchor Laura MacCallum, who has since resigned in protest. Will these scurrilous goings-on really be allowed to fade into oblivion without anyone having to face any consequences?

It's too bad that New Mexico's newspapers and TV news outfits are apparently uninterested in pursuing a story like this. For example, the Albuquerque Journal's main political reporter, Jeff Jones, hasn't mentioned it at all, preferring to write derivative stories like this one that consists primarily of a laundry list of Gov. Bill Richardson's statements on whether he will endorse a presidential candidate. Journalism? What's that?

UPDATE 1: Another national blog, Crooks and Liars, posted on this story late yesterday. Who's next?

UPDATE 2: Now Mark Crispin Miller's Notes From Underground has picked it up.

Results of Santa Fe, Other Municipal Elections

According to this unofficial summary of the results of the Santa Fe municipal election by the Santa Fe New Mexican, all of the amendments to the city charter passed including ranked-choice voting and public funded elections. In Council District 1: Bushee 2,100, Garcia 798. In Council District 2: Romero 2,024, Dobyns 701. In Council District 3: Lujan 731, Chavez 867. In Council District 4: Ortiz 1,368. You can learn what passage of the charter changes means in this New Mexican article.

KRQE has election results for Rio Rancho, where Tom Swisstack won the mayoral race and the higher education initiative passed, and other municipal elections held around the state on Tuesday.

Updates on Dem Prez Primaries/Caucuses: OH, RI, TX, VT Results

Frequently updated results for all four states are available at the CNN website.

UPDATE 9PM: Check out how the delegate counts are going for the real story here. The explanation provided is very instructive. This is the kind of mathematical analysis that indicates that unless Clinton wins big, like 65%-35%, in all the states tonight plus all the states to come through June, and she ALSO wins big in most every district within the states, she cannot make up Obama's delegate margin.

Before tonight, Obama's pledged delegate margin was 161 or so. The results from today will probably be a wash -- with one or the other gaining only a handful of net delegates.
***********

Vermont: 15 pledged, 8 super delegates
Polls had barely closed in Vermont when Barack Obama was projected to be the winner of his 12th straight contest based on exit polling results. Obama was expected to win the state by a healthy margin, so this is no surprise, but it does represent one down, three to go if you're an Obama fan like me. The exit polling in Vermont shows Obama winning by big margins in almost every demographic category.

Texas: 126 pledged - primary, 67 pledged - caucuses, 12 super delegates

Vote stealing being reported in Houston. And it's not by the Obama campaign. Description of voting and caucus chaos in . Clinton projected as winner despite the fact that the caucus results, which will allocate about 35% of delegates, are only dribbling in. I thought the "winning" of the state of Texas was dependent on who wins the primary AND the caucus, didn't you?

Ohio: 141 pledged, 21 super delegates
Polling places in two counties staying open late due to weather. Hillary projected winner at about 9:00 PM our time, although most major city totals are not yet in.

Rhode Island: 21 pledged, 12 super delegates
As expected, Clinton the projected winner, although it looks like the pledged delegate split will be about even. Exit polling.