Democracy for New Mexico

NM-03: New 'Wiviott in Depth' Video

Don Wiviott, a Dem running for Congress in NM-03, has just released a new extended video introduction (above) that gives him a chance to tell prospective voters a little more about himself, what he believes in and why he's running for the U.S. House seat in Northern New Mexico. About five and half minutes long, the video shows Wiviott on the road, talking to groups and explaining his take on the campaign and what's needed in Washington. It also features supporters talking about why they plan to vote for Don.

I like it, and I think this approach can be very useful in breaking through to voters by going around the kind of traditional media that doesn't cover local political news in much depth. Check it out and see what you think.

(Updated) Two New Mexicans On the Ground in Dallas for Obama

Obama greets supporters after Carrollton town hall (AP/Rick Bowmer)

UPDATE: Check out the comments thread for Laura Sanchez's report on her experience in Dallas.
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Check back later. I'll be posting updates from Albuquerque's Mario Benevidez and Laura Sanchez, who are on the ground in Dallas for the Obama campaign. That's IF and WHEN they can find the time! Also, I learned that Maggie over at m-pyre is hosting the duo at her place in Dallas so check over there for tidbits too.

Albuquerque Obama supporters Mario Benevidez and Laura E. Sanchez traveled all the way to Dallas to be a part of today's much anticipated Dem primary and caucus in Texas. Late yesterday afternoon, they hooked up with former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and progressive rising star State Rep. Raphael Anchia (D-Dallas) to attend a packed Obama event for students and parents at the Newman Smith High School auditorium in Carrollton, just north of Dallas. Snow was falling but spirits were high.

A crowd of more than 2000 got to hear Obama urge students to get involved with politics and government, take responsibility for their actions and be a part of the solution (click for video). Obama also answered their questions about the environment, global warming, the Iraq war and immigration and spoke to them about the future.

Working for Obama's Voter Protection Team
Mario and Laura called me today to say they'll be working all day and into the night for the Obama campaign's voter protection team in Dallas. Attorneys and law students from around the nation have traveled to Texas to help monitor voting sites and respond to any reported problems concerning voter suppression or other irregularities. The two New Mexicans will be stationed outside a polling place at Robert Thornton Elementary School, in a primarily African-American precinct, and holding signs indicating they're available to help voters who run into obstacles or technicalities, or who need information.

Texas Two-Step
Polls opened in Texas at 7:00 AM this morning. There will be two shifts covered by Obama's voter protection team at the Thornton Elementary polling place -- with only a few minutes of respite in beween -- until the polls close at 7:00 PM. Like other voting sites, their precinct will reopen at 7:15 PM sharp for the evening caucus, part of the so-called Texas Two-Step. After casting their primary ballots during early voting or on election day in a voting booth, voters can return to the same polling place for their caucus and support their candidate a second time -- this time publicly.

The results in the primary portion of the voting will determine who gets about 65% of the delegates, with the caucus participants deciding the remainder according to a complex formula.

Texas Early Voting Turnout Has Been Huge
Mario reported there were voters in line when the precinct site opened, and voting was steady as of about 8:00 AM our time. Turnouts have been recordbreaking at early voting sites all over the state. According to Texas blog Burnt Orange Report, a total of about 800,000 people voted in the Texas primary-caucus in '04. This year, more than a million have already voted early. In Dallas County, about 13,000 Democrats voted early in 2004. This year, more than 123,000 have participated in early voting there.

Long Day's Journey Into Night
Nobody knows how many will vote in the Texas primary today or who will take the time to return to attend a caucus tonight. Mario and Laura will be checking in with me when they can today to report how things are going at the precinct they're monitoring. They believe they're the only New Mexicans who traveled to Texas to be a part of the Obama voter protection team.

It's great to be getting their on-the-ground reports from one of the biggest states where votes are up for grabs on one of the most critical primary days in the '08 cycle. Are you fired up? You'd better be. I have a feeling it's gonna be a long, long night before we know the final results from the four states where Dems are voting today: Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island.

Must Read: Vote Buying by Wilson & White Campaigns at NM GOP Delegate Nominating Meetings?

On the heels of his story about threats reportedly being made by powerful NM Repubs to those thinking of mounting a primary challenge to NM-01 Congressional candidate Darren White, Dennis Domrzalski has a new post on what is being termed vote buying -- allegedly carried out by the campaigns of Darren White and Heather Wilson at certain GOP ward conventions in Albuquerque on February 24. The allegations against White's NM-01 Congressional campaign and Wilson's U.S. Senate campaign are being made by former-NM Governor Dave Cargo (right), and corroborated by State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones. Quote:

Cargo says he noticed something different when 59 people showed up at the Albuquerque Marriott to elect delegates from the 31^st ward in Albuquerque.

“This is probably the biggest ward in the city, by far. Normally we have between 9 and 15 people show up,” Cargo said. “And so along comes the convention on Sunday and 59 people show up.”

Cargo began passing around a signup sheet. “I said ‘I’m going to pass around notebook and would like to have you write down your names and address and phone number so I can call you and put you to work for the party,’” Cargo said. “Then one gal got up and said, ‘We aren’t working for any party; we’re here only this one time and we won’t be back.’”

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

“I told them that this was known as vote buying, that it was illegal and that it was fourth-degree felony,” Cargo said.

... State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, R-Albuquerque, said she saw the same thing in the 24^th Ward’s convention. Many of the participants said they had been paid to attend and vote for certain delegates, she said.

“They were free about telling us why they were there and what they were trying to do,” Arnold-Jones added. “Some people said they had been paid to participate in the convention. It was clear that some of them had no stake in the process and that they were not coming back for the convention.”

The allegations about possible vote buying were first reported last week by KKOB Radio News Anchor Laura MacCallum, who quit her job in protest when News Director Pat Allen pulled the stories after being contacted by Wilson campaign spokesperson Whitney Cheshire (right).

MacCallum was outraged by the situation.

“I had an ethical problem with the stories being pulled because Heather Wilson’s campaign put pressure on newsroom management,” MacCallum said. “They allowed political pressure to dictate the news. As journalists we can’t do that. The news has to stand alone. That a political candidate can inject herself into news department management is just mind blowing. Should we just be doing the Heather Wilson news? And as soon as we make her angry she’s going to call and start giving everybody trouble?

You really must read the entire post at Domrzalski's blog. Also check out the post on this at , who jumped on Domrzalski's story first this afternoon.

Hillary Says She and McCain Ready for Presidency, Not Obama

If this isn't the most disloyal statement by a Democrat running for the nomination in decades, I don't know what it is. Coming down to the wire in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island, Hillary Clinton is praising John McCain as she bashes Obama. I'll say that again -- she's praising McCain. According to a statement Hillary made to reporters at a press conference in Fort Worth today, only she and McCain have the "experience" necessary to be president.

The irony about the "experience" she cites is demonstrated in the second part of the video above, while she's making her Senate floor statement supporting her vote for Bush's Iraq invasion. She cites her "experience" of eight years in the White House to justify her vote. Got that? Her EXPERIENCE convinced her to vote for Bush's unilateral war based on lies -- lies that multitudes around the globe saw through from the get go. And the life experience-rich McCain? He voted right along with Hillary to get us into this horror. Apparently, it's that same "experience" that's convincing him it would be peachy keen to stay in Iraq for 100 more years.

Criticizing Obama's experience is one thing. Comparing him unfavorably to the loose cannon who is the presumptive Repub nominee is shameful, in my view. She's starting to sound like Joe Lieberman. The line has been crossed.

A reporter at the press conference did probe further about Clinton's claim that she's read to be commander-in-chief on "day one."

When asked at the press conference if she could name a particular instance in her past that equips her to deal with a national security crisis, Clinton balked, saying, “Well, I was involved in a lot of the decisions that were made. Again, you are looking at it from the wrong perspective,” Clinton said. “You know, no one who hasn’t been president has done that, so that’s not the right question. The question is, what have you done over the course of that lifetime to equip you for that moment?”

What HAS she done in terms of foreign policy or national security? Anyone know? Does cleaning up after Bill's messes count?

Joel Davis Kicks Off Campaign for State Senate, District 10

The Friends of Joel Davis cordially invite you to join us for the first event in support of Joel Davis, Democrat for NM Senate District 10! Joel Davis is a positive voice for change!

When: Wednesday, March 5, 6:00 PM
Location: Q-Bar in Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town
800 Rio Grande Boulevard NW, Albuquerque
View MAP  Phone: (505) 401-7901

Arrive promplty for complimentary Apricot Red Chile Glazed Chicken Skewers, Marinated Duck Taquitos, Red Corn Tortilla Chips and Assorted Salsas, and Grilled Brie! Help us to hit the ground running with energy and momentum!

This event is co-sponsored by the following individuals:

• Denise Aguilar, Esq.
• Jennifer Anderson, Esq.
• Jaxon Ayala
• Marcos Baca
• Tamara Baca
• Mario Benavidez
• Josh Boone, Esq.
• Jason Burnette, Esq.
• George Chandler, Esq.
• Jake Chavez, Esq.
• Mia Chavez, Esq.
• Marsella Duartes
• Sarah Gorman, Esq.
• Alain Jackson, Esq.
• John Kelley, Esq.
• Alex Limkin, Esq.
• Sean McAfee, Esq.
• Clara Moran, Esq.
• Richard Moran, Esq.
• Elena Moreno, Esq.
• Ann Marie Padilla
• Michael Plante, Esq.
• Anthony Ramirez
• Sam Roybal, Esq.
• Alex Russell, Esq.
• Laura E. Sanchez, Esq.
• Delilah Tenorio, Esq.
• Omar Trujillo
• Pilar Trujillo
• Adan Trujillo, Esq.
• Ted Trujillo, Esq.
• Christina A. Vigil, Esq.
• Lisa Vigil

Campaign website coming soon at https://joeldavis.org/.

Large Turnout at Pre-Primary Convention of Bernalillo County Dems

State Party Chair Brian Colón revs the crowd

Note: I'll post some video clips and more photos later from Saturday's DPBC Convention. Here's my first installment.

As you may have noticed, Democrats are supercharged these days, turning out in droves at primaries, caucuses, campaign offices and party meetings all over the country. Bernalillo County Dems are no exception. The meeting room was packed at Saturday's DPBC Pre-Primary Convention at the Cibola High School Performing Arts Center on Albquerque's West Side.

Rep. Tom Udall urges Dems not to take anything for granted

With 646 delegates apportioned to the County, this was New Mexico's largest county party gathering among the confabs being held in counties around the state to elect delegates to the State Pre-Primary Convention. A total of 459 credentialed delegates (including the alternate replacements) were present at the DPBC Convention. Attendees filled the seats, lined the back of the room and formed delegate knots conferring in the hallways and at the tables of the candidates.

DPBC Parliamentarian Tim Keller, DPBC Chair Ana Canales

Unlike other counties where Dems elect their state delegates at their pre-primaries, Bernalillo County's elections of state delegates and alternates took place previously at ward/precinct meetings. The delegates to the State Convention were confirmed at the DPBC Pre-Primary. The State Convention is set for March 15, 2008 at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho.

The DPBC Pre-Primary agenda also included discussing and passing resolutions to be forwarded to the state level, hearing from 2008 candidates and generally touching base to gear up for our June primary and the general election in November. Not to mention gossiping, hugging, sharing Repub jokes and downing all those little treats provided by campaigns.

Discussion and debate on more than 50 county party resolutions filled the first part of the meeting after a motion passed to move the Platform and Resolutions Committee report to the front of the agenda. County Platform and Resolutions Committee Chair Mel O'Reilly (right) led the delegates in a lively back and forth on timely issues like the death penalty, superdelegates, nuclear energy, the caucus process and the Iraq occupation. I should have a list of the resolutions passed sometime this week.

Rep. Tom Udall happened to sit down next to me during the resolutions debate and he said he was excited that so many Dems were passionately involved in the issues and showing up to join in the dialogue. He got thunderous applause and a standing ovation when he took the stage to speak to the delegates about turning New Mexico Blue in November 2008, when George Bush will NOT be on the ballot.

Rep. Udall, who's running to replace Pete Domenici as U.S. Senator, stressed that it's up to us if he's to be victorious in his Senate quest. He urged the crowd not to take anything for granted and reminded everyone that the Republicans will undoubtedly be dedicating significant funds and energy to keeping the seat in GOP hands. He said he's giving up a safe seat in Congress to seek the Senate seat at the urging of New Mexico's Democrats, and that we need to pull together and work hard to make victory a reality.

Martin Heinrich, NM-01 candidate

Delegates also heard short speeches from DPNM Chair Brian Colon, DPBC Chair Ana Canales, State Treasurer James B. Lewis, Secretary of State Mary Herrera and Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver. Candidates addressing the crowd and asking for support included all four primary contenders for Congress in CD1: Martin Heinrich, Michelle Lujan Grisham, Rebecca Vigil-Giron and Robert Pidcock. Others reaching out to the crowd included Tim Keller, running for State Senate in District 17; Eric Griego, a State Senate candidate in District 14; Jason Call, running for State Senate in District 20; District 11 State Senate candidate Michael Padilla and a group of District and Appeals Court judges.

Click on images for larger versions. All photos by M.E.Broderick.

Thursday: Sen. Cisco McSorley Reelection Celebration

From the Committee to Elect Cisco McSorley Senate District 16, 415 Wellesley Place NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106: You're invited to celebrate with Cisco McSorley as he prepares to run for re-election as New Mexico State Senator. Please join us Thursday, March 6 from 5:30 - 7 PM at O'Neill's Pub in Nob Hill at 4310 Central Ave SE, ABQ 87108. More info: mcsorley4nm@earthlink.net.

Ortiz y Pino: A Time Traveler's Guide to the 2009 Legislature

This is a guest blog by Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a Democratic State Senator who represents District 12 in Albuquerque.

You don’t have to own a crystal ball to realize that next year’s New Mexico State Legislative session will face an enormous agenda of unfinished business ... even before it tries to address the next generation of great new ideas coming down the pike.

In an earlier piece (in the The Sun News) I described what I think will have to be the next session’s main preoccupation: finding additional tax revenue to keep the Ship of State afloat.  We are coming out of an unprecedented period of economic prosperity in New Mexico.  Revenues have been growing at a rate sufficient to permit both generous tax cuts and ambitious program growth.

That period is now just about at its end.  Adjusting to the new realities of State Finance may be painful.  It will certainly require some additional courage or creativity on the part of a Legislature which has grown accustomed to rarely having to say “no” to any of the interests seeking its assistance.

However, even in the new era of economic belt-tightening which we are entering, there still will need to be solutions devised for the most troublesome of our social problems.  Pleading our state’s poverty as an excuse can never replace determined action. Our very real poverty is simply a complication we have to deal with in confronting the knottiest of our problems.

Here are a dozen guideposts to help keep track of the action leading up to next year’s legislative battles.  These are: three big ticket items; three time bombs; three cries for justice and three leftovers on the table.

Three Big Ticket Items for Our Shopping Cart
There are three big expenditures lurking over the horizon, awaiting action.  We ran away from them this year, postponing the inevitable for twelve months, hoping for some kind of fiscal miracle to spare us from shelling out the almost one billion in total new dollars that they will require.  That miracle isn’t going to occur.

In 2009 I believe we will have at last to stop running from them.  The ultimate cost of resolving them is only growing more difficult with each passing year, not easier.  Each of them is estimated to require $300 million or more (in 2008—by next year they will all have bigger price tags).

These three major purchases are the new public school funding formula; the bail-out of the public employees’ health insurance fund, and the Governor’s health care reform package (or some acceptable alternative to it).  All three have another characteristic in common: the longer we wait to act on each of them, the more expensive the ultimate hit will be.  We can run; we can hide, but we can’t escape.

Three Time-Bombs About to Detonate
Similarly, we postponed acting on three other issues that may not yet have a firm cost estimate attached, but that absolutely demand action before the symptoms already in evidence explode into major problems for many New Mexicans.

The first of these is the burgeoning issue of property tax inequity.  This year it surfaced as “property tax lightning” (the term coined to describe the unexpectedly large jumps that happen when new owners buy properties that haven’t had updated appraisals in years and that therefore haven’t been assessed at anything close to what that property’s real value would indicate).  In the past it was the fear that many elderly persons on fixed incomes might lose their homes because of escalating tax rates.

The numerous complaints that the property tax appraisal and assessment system is treating individuals unfairly suggest that we ought to address it before the entire system breaks down.  We don’t have the same kind of problems here that California faces with its Prop 13 consequences ... yet. However, since for most New Mexicans their home is their largest item of wealth, their most valuable possession, anything that threatens that home’s value demands legislative action.

The second is the continuing dilemma of how to finance highway construction and maintenance in this state.  Costs are sky rocketing; the Feds have seriously cut their support levels for this huge need and local governments are feeling the pinch themselves.  It is crucial that New Mexico figure out some new revenue stream to pay for this immensely important infrastructure and that we do it fast.

The third is the burden that County governments are being asked to shoulder in the financing of jails.  The rules for imprisoning and holding criminals are largely creations of State government.  Who gets locked up; how long he is held; under what terms he can be released; what minor parole infractions merit re-imprisoning him ... all of those are outside the authority of local government to control.  They are just expected to pay the bills for them.  And they are going broke doing so, shelling out scarce local dollars for something that probably ought to be part of State Government’s budget, not theirs.

You could call this issue getting a fiscal handle on our state’s out-of-control, super-expensive correctional system.  Privately owned and operated prisons paid-for by State Government; “corrections” facilities that rarely rehabilitate those they house; scandalously high recidivism rates, and a dearth of good alternatives to incarceration—all are symptoms of a penal system hemorrhaging red ink.

Three Cries for Justice
The legislature fell short again this year in resolving the plight of those in our state living in non-marital relationships, “domestic partners.”  There are very real issues of discrimination in this regard, issues that won’t vanish just because we chose to ignore them this time around.  Look for this to continue being a huge battleground next year.

Then the issue of eliminating the death penalty is certain to again stir its advocates and its opponents to protracted action.  Will 2009 be the year that finally this brutal remnant of the frontier mentality gets put away once and for all?  One can only hope.

Finally, I would include in this group of issues the many forms of injustice we have built into the very framework of most of our social programs as a consequence of inadequate funding levels. 

We maintain a “waiting list” for many developmental disability services; we fund mental health care at a level so low that it permits treatment for only some of those who are desperately in need of it; we require our social service contractors, non-profit agencies operating on a shoestring, to pay a higher wage than previously and to continue to provide health insurance to employees—but we haven’t increased their reimbursement rates.  All of those are penny-wise/pound-foolish games that not only delay services but treat citizens unjustly, with a classic double standard.

Three Scraps Left on the Table
We still have no ethics reforms.  Plenty have been suggested; a few made it into legislation that got debated; nothing came out the other end of the sausage-making machinery.  The challenge remains: we need to act to restore the public’s confidence ... before we lose it permanently.

The Railrunner commuter train funding scheme didn’t get approved, either.  If it is to ever realize its potential for keeping I-25 safe and for reducing our dependence on automobiles, this issue of paying for commuter service will have to be re-visited.

The third leftover in this grouping is the knotty issue of nuclear power: cleaning up uranium mines; protecting against future environmental and health damage caused by mining, milling, transporting, fabricating and reprocessing radioactive products and of course, where or how to safety store the waste produced by the nuclear industry: in weapons, medical procedures and energy production.

Big Uranium wants to start up the machinery again; will we be tempted by the money?  And can it truly be viewed as “clean energy” when it takes as much fossil fuel to produce as it saves?  This is a debate that has barely begun.  I see it on the agenda for many years to come.

Three Items on My Personal Agenda for 2009
I’ll end by discussing some of my own areas of concern, the concerns of a very junior State Senator who represents a district in Central Albuquerque that in some ways accurately serves as a microcosm of our full State—but in others is completely atypical.

I want to get something done about the potentially scandalous situation regarding legal guardians.  These are individuals appointed by Courts to handle the affairs of adults judged incompetent.  For starters we need to get a handle on what’s out there.  Since the Courts aren’t monitoring or checking up in any way, the fear is that abuses may have cropped up in the system.  Every year of delay in addressing this means additional elderly or handicapped adults may be being taken advantage of.

I also want to fund the depleted uranium testing program for soldiers returning to New Mexico from war zones in the Middle East.  In time the hope is to convince the Federal Veterans Administration that this problem has to be admitted and dealt with.

Finally, this state is allowing a potentially valuable resource to be wasted: the minds and skills of the 200,000 or more adults who live in New Mexico who have not finished high school.  Many are not literate.  They want to work, want to be part of the solution, not the problem ... but until we put together a serious effort to expand  programs in Adult Literacy, Adult Basic Ed, English as a Second Language and drop-out recovery, we will have to watch this vast potential get wasted ... or get twisted into criminal careers.

That’s my travelers’ guide.  The revised edition will be available in 2009.

This is a guest blog by NM State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino. Click to read previous guest blogs by the Senator here and here. Guest blogs provide readers with an opportunity to express their views on relevant issues and may or many not reflect our views. 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.

Lazy Sunday

I'm feeling relaxed and lazy this Sunday so I thought I'd ditch the political writing and instead offer you a couple of alternative ways to waste spend your time.

For political junkies: Try fooling around with the presidential delegate calculator, courtesy of Forbes.com. Delegates already won by Obama and Clinton are built into the calculation, and the tool allows you to punch in the results you predict in outstanding primaries and caucuses to get revised delegate counts and a myriad of permutations. What combination of wins will propel your candidate (or the opponent) to victory in the delegate count?

For aging tech enthusiasts: Check out this detailed wiki of obsolete skills related to computers, electronics and other things that require some degree of technical acumen. You can edit the entries or add your own. How many obsolete practices can your overloaded, deteriorating brain remember? Be honest. For starters, I confess that I remember changing the ribbon on a typewriter, dialing a rotary phone and operating a ditto machine.

I also clearly remember the aroma of ditto ink permeating a classroom that had wooden floors and large windows that were opened and closed by a human using a long pole with a hook on the end. This same classroom of a certain era often had what was called a "cloak room" for hanging coats and jackets. Its door panels pulled down and had dusty blackboards on the classroom side. There was usually the sound of a pendulum clock ticking in the background. The library down the hall featured an index card catalogue to help you locate books and a microfiche for scanning old newspaper articles.

For dog lovers: That's Boz up top. He's my friend John's new black lab puppy, and a master at spending his own time and that of his "master's" romping and relaxing. He's a bit more than three months old and is reportedly exploring life on planet Earth with zest. When he's not napping.