Democracy for New Mexico

All Dems Welcome at Party Meeting Saturday

The Democratic Party of New Mexico is holding its State Central Committee (SCC) meeting at Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe this coming Saturday. All Democrats are welcome and encouraged to attend and participate (although only SCC members can vote). If you have an interest in where the Party's at and where it's headed, join your fellow Democrats in Santa Fe this weekend for the Party's bi-annual meeting. Check the DPNM website for more information.

Registration and candidate tabling begins at 7:30 AM at the Witter Fitness Education Center, Room 216. A continental breakfast reception sponsored by Senator Jeff Bingaman will run from 8-9:00 AM on the Witter Center's mezzanine. The SCC Meeting starts at 9:00 AM at the Witter Center Gym and continues until 1:00 PM. Affiliated organizations and caucuses, including those for Democratic Women, Progressives, Veterans, Native Americans and Hispanics, will meet at 1:30 PM, with the Young Democrats of New Mexico convening at 2:00 PM.

Dean Not On Agenda
Unfortunately, DNC Chair Howard Dean won't be speaking at the meeting or holding a Party fundraiser, as was originally announced. We've heard conflicting reasons on why Dean won't be appearing. Rumors that Governor Richardson didn't want a visit right now from Dean have been circulating for weeks among Party members. This faction claims the DPNM dragged its feet in requesting an appearance by Dean or didn't make any official request to the DNC. Some insiders claim the DNC didn't want to schedule a visit given the current upheaval over the Treasurer's Office legal problems, while State Party officials claim they couldn't lock in a date because of travel snafus. Bottom line: nobody seems to know for sure.

Still, even without an appearance by Dean, the meeting promises to be a lively and spirited display of Democracy (big D) in action. The SCC has been invigorated by the addition of many new members from the grassroots who want to see the Party refocused and rebuilt from the ground up. Come on up to Santa Fe and see for yourself. Featured speakers at the SCC meeting will include Rep. Tom Udall, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Gov. Bill Richardson and Eric Liu, former Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor for Bill Clinton.

Hear Patricia Madrid at DPBC Third Thursday Meeting

Democratic Party of Bernalillo County
Third Thursday Meeting
November 17, 6:00 PM
UNM Law School, Room 2401
1117 Stanford NE
Click for map

Attorney General Patricia Madrid will address the Third Thursday meeting of the DPBC to present her views and agenda as a candidate for the seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico. Please tell your fellow constituents about the meeting. All Democrats are welcome.

Tell The Truth

Dean on Meet the Press this morning:

Video courtesy The Brad Blog.

Transcript of entire show (including segment with Ken Mehlman, RNC Chair) courtesy MSNBC

Podcast courtesy MSNBC.

All Dems Invited: State Party Resolutions Committee Set for 11/15

The Democratic Party of New Mexico will hold a State Platform and Resolutions Committee Meeting:

Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 10:00 AM
Plumbers and Pipefitters Hall
510 San Pedro SE, Albuquerque 87108
Click for map

The meeting is for submission and review of resolutions. All Democrats are welcome to attend and comment at the meeting, but only Committee members will be allowed to vote on the resolutions.

The meeting time was changed from the evening to the morning hours so that it wouldn't conflict with the DNC Kickoff Campaign gatherings that are being held Tuesday evening around NM and the nation. Click to host or attend a DNC Kickoff event. The events will include participation in a conference call with DNC Chair Howard Dean.

Here's a list of the members of the State Resolutions Committee:

APPOINTED:
Marty Cope
Eric Elison
Jennifer Garcia
Ben Ray Lujan
Mel O’Reilly
Kevin Pohl
Christine Trujillo

ELECTED COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Zoe Economou
Don Dutton
Stephen Fettig
Ignacio Lucero
Marshall Martinez
Cliff Reed
Connie Salazar

The State Resolutions Committee is chaired by DPNM Chair John Wertheim. Here's a link to the official call to the meeting.

Give 'Em Hell Harry

Our leader in the U.S. Senate, Harry Reid, has launched a new action website and blog called Give 'Em Hell Harry. First action: You can sign a petition to be sent to Bush on Iraq that says:

You can no longer mislead Congress and the American people and need to honestly lay out the facts about Iraq. It's time for an Iraq success strategy that will bring our troops home.

We cannot continue to stay the course in Iraq -- we must change the course.

As MoveOn says:

Since 2004, Republicans have stonewalled on a promise to investigate the Bush administration deceptions that led to the Iraq war. So Republicans thought it was business as usual Tuesday afternoon when Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid took to the floor of the Senate to comment on Iraq. Then a modern day Boston Tea Party began.

Reid stopped all other Senate business and forced the Senate into a special closed session to discuss Iraq and demand accountability in the White House CIA Leak scandal. It was a bold move, but after more than an hour, Democrats emerged victorious having won a renewed investigation into the misuse of intelligence leading to the war in Iraq—including the White House CIA leak.

Reid didn't stop there. On Wednesday, he e-mailed supporters and asked them to join him in demanding a success strategy to bring our troops home from Iraq. Now that he's fighting this important fight, it's critical that we show him how much we appreciate this act of leadership. Check out his petition and add you name.

More

Marston Moore at Duke City Fix weighs in on the continuing coverage of Democratic Party issues, Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican adds another column on the topic today and Monahan makes a claim about the DPNM Executive Director.  (Our previous posts on this are here and here.)

The Continuing Saga of State Party Politics

For ready reference, I thought I'd gather together links to recent media and online coverage on State Democratic Party politics and issues raised by State Central Committee members:

Steve Terrell had an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican on October 29th (pdf) that didn't show up online, as well as an extensive article and sidebar in the New Mexican today that you can read on his blog.

UPDATE: Terrell has more on Richard Buckman in the 11/3/05 Santa Fe New Mexican.

Kate Nash had a column in the Albuquerque Tribune on October 31st.

Joe Monahan has put up two posts in the last two days, here and here.

DFNM featured a post on October 25th on staff leaving the DPNM, as well as the one yesterday in response to Joe Monahan's first post.

I've received a number of emails from people wanting to know more about Richard Buckman of TCB after Terrell's coverage on this. He was paid tens of thousands of dollars by the State Party for consulting, supposedly to lobby on the Party's behalf at the DNC and DCCC. People are finding it odd that the DPNM felt it had to pay someone to interact with the Party in Washington. It's also been stated that one of Buckman's accomplishments was to arrange for Wesley Clark to appear at a Party fundraiser in Hobbs, NM.

Here and here are articles I found by Googling on Buckman. In one of them he's referred to as "formerly a GOP consultant." Both articles cover his involvement with the appointment of U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi to the federal Court of Appeals. Pickering was eventually appointed to the post by Bush in a temporary recess appointment.

Although I think some of the comments in yesterday's thread provide more heat than light, and are too personal in some cases, I still believe a dialog on where we are as a Party and where we're going can be a positive thing. I don't censor commenters on this site. You're on your own in judging how accurate or reasonable their points are. Blogs always attract juvenile comments along with the more rational ones.

I want to reiterate that the majority of Dems who are speaking out, publicly or behind the scenes, are seeking only to encourage better accountability, transparency and results from the State Party. These are all  touchstones of any effective and professional organization. We are regular, rank and file members of the Party's State Central Committee, its wards and its precincts -- workers from within the mainstream of the Party who are committed to getting things done and making sure our Party infrastructure is efficient and honest. Don'' believe anyone saying otherwise.

Half-Truths, Non-Truths and the Facts

Joe Monahan has a rambling and often ill-informed piece up today on his blog about Democratic Party Chair John Wertheim, a letter sent to the Party's State Central Committee (SCC) members from a group of their colleagues and an alleged effort by ex-Albuquerque mayoral candidate Judy Espinosa to become Dem Party Chair at some point. I need to clear up some of the misconceptions communicated by Monahan.

First off, a group of SCC members (including me) did draft and send off a letter to other members expressing concerns about how the Party is functioning and where it is headed. Click to read the letter (pdf). We're following up with phone calls to these same people. We did not send the letter to bloggers or the media. We did not mention anything about the Party's actions to keep Nader off the ballot. We are not connected with any effort to have Judy Espinosa become Party Chair. We are expressing our own views as SCC members, not those of any Party staffers or officials who recently resigned. The signers of the letter are not "Deaniacs" per se. We arrived at our views from many points on the political compass.

The letter was meant to generate interest in moving the Party forward, to gauge how Party members around the state view the Party's efforts and to urge Party officers to follow the Party's rules and bylaws so our Party might function more effectively and efficiently.

This was not an effort to push a clandestine agenda or seek support for a run for chair by Judy Espinosa or anyone else. It was meant as a grassroots effort to engage more people in the discussion of where the Party should be headed -- a lively and often heated discussion that has been taking place all over the nation. We see ourselves as grassroots activists interested in various reforms and improvements that can make the Party, its candidates and its positions more representative of core Democratic values. We want to win and we strongly believe these kinds of changes can make that happen more frequently.

Unlike the Republicans, most true Democrats believe debate, brainstorming and inclusive discussions among our diverse members yield positive results. As you may have noticed, we don't favor the lockstep exclusivism and elitism that characterize Republican politics. We see ourselves as members of what has long been the Party of the People, not some club organized for wealthy movers and shakers.

We don't know who contacted Joe Monahan with the info he published, but it wasn't us. And we have absolutely nothing to do with any effort by Espinosa to take over the reins of the Party. We didn't call for Chairman Wertheim's removal.

Of course our letter expressing concerns and ways we might address them don't "pose a threat to either him [John Wertheim] or the party," a Wetheim quote included in Monahan's post. Our goals are to strengthen the Party, help improve how it operates and activate Party members around the state to become more actively engaged in developing our message and assuming the responsibilities delineated in the Party rules for SCC members.

We believe the Party's focus has been on candidates and their big personalities at the top instead of on principles and positions that come from the bottom up -- the very things that define who we are and what we stand for as a Party.  And we're willing to do the often tedious work necessary to help the Party regain its footing and once again represent what rank and file Democrats believe, not just what politicos see as good matches to poll results.

We want Party members, its staff, its officers, its candidates and its officeholders to be proactive leaders who carry a message from the grassroots up. And to communicate that message persuasively and boldly. We're part of a very large number of Democratic activists around the nation who have become precinct and ward officers, central committee members, state and county Party chairs, phonebankers and doorknockers. We believe we bring much-needed positive energies and new blood to a Party often seen as tired and stuck in the past, or cynically tied to today's big dollar donors.

Perhaps most exciting is the fact we're finding so much support and encouragement from long-time Party members here in New Mexico. Reaching out via conversations, letters and phone calls, we are finding that a majority of NM Democrats share many of our concerns about how the Party is operating today, as well as a hope for a stronger, more effective Party if we are willing to work together.

So don't believe Monahan's take on what we're doing (or that of whoever is feeding him distorted info). We're not out to toss around personal insults, trash the Party or launch a destructive attack on anyone. What we're trying to do is set the bar higher on the quality of the Party's transparency, communication, accountability, efficiency and inclusiveness. Party rules set out the duties of our officers and require SCC members to approve budgets and expenditures. They delineate clear responsibilities for the SCC and Party officers. We've decided we need to take these responsibilites seriously and we want everyone concerned to do the same. This is not a time for complacency or business as usual.

We're asking questions, expecting answers and demanding accountability. Is that a bad thing? We think it's a good thing. What do you think? --Barbara Wold

P.S. Sorry this is so long, but I felt I had to be in this case.

Host a November 15 DNC National Organizing Kickoff Event

Editor's Note: Mary Ellen and I will be hosting one of these November 15th house parties for our precinct and neighborhood. Besides providing an opportunity to get together with neighbors to encourage them to get more involved, these events will feature a conference call with Howard Dean. It would be great if we had a host for a party in every precinct. You don't have to be a precinct or ward officer to host one. You can learn more about the events, sign up to host one or find one to attend by visiting the DNC's National Organizing Kickoff page.

From DNC Chair Howard Dean:
On November 15th, thousands of Democrats will experience our 50-state strategy up close and in person.

In many places there are vitally important elections in just a few weeks -- but we can't afford to stop organizing and stop building after Election Day. Next year's elections will be a national referendum on the Republican culture of corruption in Washington and in the states. We cannot wait until a few months before the election to get ready -- we need to start organizing right now.

On the evening of November 15th, ordinary Americans will open up their homes to their friends and neighbors for a night of planning and action -- our National Organizing Kickoff.

Will you host an Organizing Kickoff meeting on November 15th? It's easy, and you can get started right away:

https://www.democrats.org/events/create

Hosts of National Organizing Kickoff meetings can download all of the materials for a successful meeting. Information from the national and state party will include a briefing on our party-building efforts nationally and locally, a survey of the political landscape in your state and information about opportunities to take action locally.

I will be joining all of the meetings that night in a nationwide conference call.

Every one of us needs to take responsibility for the Democratic organization in our neighborhoods, and this is everyone's opportunity to come together and focus. We have to be organized to get our message out -- we need a network in place now to persuade voters and activate our supporters.

It's up to you to make sure that everyone in your neighborhood is plugged in and ready to do as much as they can. Sign up to host your National Organizing Kickoff event now.

To make an impact everywhere we need to organize everywhere. That's what you mandated, and that's why our party has taken the unprecedented step putting organizers on the ground and building state parties across the country.

The event you host will bring everyone up to speed on our progress, our opportunities and the work ahead. Everyone must commit to working on Election Day 2006 -- but the meeting you host now will help create the road map for a year of sustained commitment until then.

As Republican leaders are investigated and indicted, Americans everywhere are tired of politics as usual. The culture of corruption that Republicans have brought to Washington, DC and statehouses across the country is making more and more people realize that we need change.

Hosting a local Organizing Kickoff meeting is the most important step you can take right now to make sure that our party is in a position to change things next year. When you sign up to be a host you will have access to materials to make planning easy:

You'll be hearing more about these meetings in the coming weeks. Thank you for your time and your commitment to the idea that together, America can do better.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

What Kind of Party Are We Having?

In what some are speculating may be the straw that breaks the camel's back, our ears on the ground are telling us that Brian Monaghan, the Democratic Party of New Mexico's Comptroller, has given his two week notice. Compounding the drama is word that Monaghan's resignation was quickly followed by that of Judy Baker, State Party Treasurer and former IRS agent from the 2nd Congresssional District.

Monaghan was first brought on board by then Party Chair Diane Denish to help steer the party out of the legal trouble it had gotten itself into with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) during the 1998 election cycle. Locally and nationally, Monaghan is considered to be one of the best comptrollers in the country because of his knowledge and commitment to adhering to complicated national and state campaign finance laws.

One has to wonder what drove Monaghan to decide to leave now, and why Judy Baker decided to tender her own resignation immediately after he did.

Monaghan's departure from the Democratic Party of New Mexico also represents the fourth resignation to land on Chairman Wertheim's desk since the State Central Committee Meeting in April. These include Gideon Elliot, Deputy Executive Director; Sarah Rosenzweig, Finance Director; and Marci Youngmark who resigned after being promoted from Volunteer Coordinator to Finance Director. Terri Holland, the former Director of State Party Affairs, is also gone, having moved over to the Bernalillo County Party as Executive Director.

All this reinforces the serious concerns being raised by State Central Committee (SCC) members and party activists regarding the DPNM's financial dealings and effectiveness.

What gives?