Democracy for New Mexico

SOUND OFF: Remember the Party of the People?

Is it just me, or is anyone else put off by Governor Richardson's already large campaign fund for the 2006 governor's race? According to this morning's Albuquerque Journal, Richardson has "more than $3 million in his 2006 re-election campaign account almost a year before the candidate declaration date and before any Republican has mounted a challenge."

The article continues, "The Richardson for Governor committee raised $2,921,449 million and spent $131,085 over the past year, according to a report filed Monday with the state Bureau of Elections. The account's closing balance was $3,066,459."

What peeves me is that we frequently hear "we have no money" when we suggest that the Dems, particularly our County Parties, do something about building our Party BEFORE the next election cycle. No wonder it's so difficult to raise funds for Party activities when the big honcho at the top sucks all the bucks into his own personal coffers for a race that's way down the line.

In my opinion, this is NOT the way to rebuild the Party from the ground up after the devastating losses at so many levels over the past couple election cycles. You'd think it would be clear that the Party needs to spend bucks and time on grassroots activities and candidate development. And you'd think the top Dem in the state would be concentrating on raising funds for that instead of for his own personal goals.

I know that the State Party (with DNC funds?) has financed regional field coordinators around New Mexico and I think that's a very good thing. By all accounts the field staff is working their buns off. However, I'm sure they could always use more resources, along with the essentially broke County Parties, to really kick this effort into high gear. Instead, the dollars are going to ONE candidate who won't, in all probability, even have a serious competitor from the Republican side. Meanwhile, important work goes undone between now and the 2006 congressional election cycle. I know the Republicans aren't sitting on their behinds during this time, that's for sure.

This irks me too. According to the Journal, major contributors to Richardson include Miguel Lausell, a political and business consultant based in Puerto Rico, $25,000 and Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Bloch, real estate investors from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., $25,000. Hmm. I wonder what they expect to get from such generous donations to a governor's race in New Mexico? We once were truly the Party of the People. What are we now? The Party of the big bucks contributors?

Personally, I hope Governor Richardson sees the light and starts putting more effort into helping the State and County Parties, as well as up and coming Democratic candidates, raise funds. If we don't build the Party as a whole, from the bottom up, we'll be in piss poor shape regardless of whether Richardson wins another term.

To my mind, almost all of our efforts at this point in time should be dedicated to Party building and finding and supporting real Democrats to run in every single race possible around the state -- not to fattening up the finances of one particular Democrat.

What do YOU think?

Barbara Wold

Progressive Dems Tout Involvement in Party

Check out an article in the 5/5/05 edition of the Taos News that focuses on a report from Charlotte Roybal about the recent Democratic Party State Central Committee meeting. It discusses how progressives are joining together in New Mexico and working with like-minded folks within the Democratic Party to have a voice, a vote on resolutions and the Party platform and, eventually, the candidates who run for office.

Preliminary discussions about forming a Progressive Caucus took place after the Democratic Party State Central Committee meeting in Socorro last month with representatives from many communities around the state. Next up will be a steering committee meeting where those interested in creating a caucus can take the project one step further. To get on the progressive caucus mailing list, contact Charlotte Roybal at croybal@aol.com.

SCC Meeting Evaluation Form

If you attended the State Central Committee meeting in Socorro last weekend, you are encouraged to complete and return an evaluation form distributed by the Democratic Party of New Mexico:

Download StateCentralCommitteeEvaluation2.doc

Must Read: Open Letter to Howard Dean

In an "Open Letter to Howard Dean," The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel passes on some eloquent advice from Tom Hayden to DNC Chair Howard Dean on the Democratic Party's stance on the Iraq War. The entire online article is definitely worth a read:

https://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?pid=2356

A few excerpts:

. . . the national Democratic Party is either committed to the Iraq War, or to avoiding blame for losing the Iraq War, at the expense of the social programs for which it historically stands. The Democrats' stance on the war cannot be separated from the Democrats' stance on health care, social security, inner city investment, and education, all programs gradually being defunded by a war which costs $100 billion yearly, billed to future generations.
[. . .]
I appeal to you, Mr. Chairman, not to take the anti-war majority of this Party for granted. May I suggest that you initiate a serious reappraisal of how the Democratic Party has become trapped in the illusions which you yourself questioned so cogently when you ran for president. I believe that an immediate commencement of dialogue is necessary to fix the credibility gap in the Party's position on the Iraq War. Surely if the war was a mistake based on a fabrication, there is a better approach than simply becoming accessories to the perpetrators of the deceit. And surely there is a greater role for Party leadership than permanently squandering the immense good will, grass roots funding, and new volunteer energy that was generated by your visionary campaign.

Comments?

(Note: Click to sign a Progressive Democrats of America petition to the DNC and Howard Dean urging withdrawal from Iraq.)

My Take on the SCC Meeting

Running effective meetings isn't rocket science. Here's my take on the State Central Committee meeting in Socorro this past weekend:

If you have a more heavily populated congressional district, add people at the registration table so the line there doesn't stretch into infinity while lines for the other CDs are empty.

If the morning session is running late due to long-winded speeches by politicos, break for lunch before 2:30 PM so that people aren't cranky and starving during the business meeting. Better yet, tell the politicos to keep it short because the people's business is as important, or moreso, than hearing repeatedly that everything is peachy and how we "own" this (Red) state. John Wertheim kept repeating he'd hold the resolutions debate to 50 minutes. He should have said that about the speeches.

Don't seat the Party's officeholders and candidates in a separate, roped off VIP section if you want people to believe these politicos are our Democratic public servants instead of the other way around. Put the events that are the reason for the SCC meeting -- the officer elections and consideration of resolutions -- first. That way, our state and federal office holders will have to actually listen to the views of the Party's members and take part in the meeting instead of merely showing up to speak and then leaving soon afterwards.

Have each Congressional District break off into separate meetings to elect their vice chairs and resolutions committee members. In an already overly long meeting, it's excruciating to have to sit through nominating speeches and elections from other districts.

Require that the State Chair read and understand the Party rules before getting on stage to run elections and motions. I couldn't believe that John Wertheim didn't know the rules for electing CD members of the State Resolutions Committee. And that he gave the WRONG interpretation after he tried to scan them on stage during the start of the election. The rules require each district to elect one male and one female. Wertheim said otherwise, though I understand the vote counting went by the rules. His error caused more women to run for Resolutions, while only one man ran.

Considering how important afternoon activities were pushed to the side and almost abandoned because of the long-running morning session, it might make sense to schedule the SCC to run for two days. Jamming speeches, elections, resolutions, training sessions and caucus meetings into one day makes everyone frazzled and doesn't allow for time to reflect, meet people from around the state, see a little of the town or do justice to the work at hand. I know some people are there just to party, but I think most people would welcome time to do things right.

Urge the politico speakers to utter phrases like "grassroots power," "equal rights for all including gay people," "Iraq war," "living wage," "Social Security", "election reform" and "universal healthcare" to show that they realize which issues are important in the Democratic Party. The only speaker who went near some of these was Rep. Tom Udall. Besides demanding that we make sure that elections are never again allowed to be stolen, he urged Democrats to start fighting for our core issues and stop trying to be Republican-lite. Hurrah for Rep. Udall!

If you're having a Friday night fundraising reception with Governor Richardson, Rep. Tom Udall, Senator Jeff Bingaman and others, make sure the room can hold the people who signed up and paid from $25 to hundreds of dollars to attend. Don't hold it in a tiny room with only a handful of tables and serve only cheese and crackers, salsa and chips and few bedraggled veggies to tide people over until dinner.

If the State Party Chair is going to take it upon himself to appoint a bunch of at-large members to the State Central Committee to salve political grumblings, he shouldn't use the excuse that he's trying to gender balance the Committee. The Committee was already gender-balanced according to the Party's own records.

If you're going to put all the resolutions passed by the State Resolutions into one packet, don't separate out two resolutions on equal rights for gay and lesbian people and put them out separately on a sheet of paper labeled "Special Consideration." It's also good policy not to change wording that has been approved at the county level and by the State Resolutions Committee.

Since one of the most important actions we need to take as a Party is to train people on organizing and messaging, don't allow earlier events to run so long that they ruin the chances of people who'd like to attend the scheduled training sessions. I know that State Party staff worked hard on these sessions and most people were denied the chance to attend because the morning session ran past 2:30PM.

Although I'm very pleased with alot of the things progressive Dems were able to achieve at the SCC, I can't help thinking how much more effective, efficient and productive a meeting of Dems from all over the state could be if simple common sense was applied to running the event. How about you?

Barbara Wold

Progress for Progressive Democrats

From Charlotte Roybal, Progressive Democratic Caucus:

A lot more happened at the Democratic Party of New Mexico State Central Committee meeting on April 23, 2005 than John Wertheim’s election. As each elected official spoke at the dais, they all acknowledged the new and different faces that were in the audience and got elected to State Central Committee.

Where did this come from? Well, for the past few months Democrats across the state who never before participated in party politics have decided to take action. They have joined forces with many long time faces in the Democratic Party in New Mexico because they have decided that they want to have a voice in the democratic party and have a vote on resolutions, platform and eventually the candidates that run for office.

To do this, people from across the state ran in their precincts, wards, and state central committee in order to have a vote and a voice. These people want their party back. They do not want our elected Democrats moving to the middle or right.

A resolution to “Bring the Troops Home” was written and submitted through precincts, wards and counties. San Juan, Sandoval, Bernalillo, Taos, Santa Fe and Los Alamos passed this resolution at each of their county meetings. As it passed through the State Resolutions Committee, progressives knew we were making a statement. On Saturday in Socorro, the resolution to Bring The Troops Home was passed in New Mexico. There is a resolution in Congress sponsored by Representative Lynn Woolsey which 43 congress man have already signed on with their support.

“We hope Tom Udall will consider signing on now that the DPNM has passed such a resolution. “ Our Congressman has always been known to listen to people in our communities,” said Paul Stokes of Sandoval County.

At the California State Convention of the Democratic Party last week, a similar action was taken.  It has also passed in Vermont. There is a movement across America to take action and become part of the Democratic Party infrastructure.

Bernalillo County had passed a resolution to support a living wage in communities in New Mexico. It was not brought before the state central committee so it was brought up from the floor on Saturday. There was reluctance to bring this forward at the State Resolutions Committee Meeting and at the Socorro Meeting but it was finally added to the packet of resolutions. Another additional resolution was brought forward from the floor by Giovanna Rossi Director of PRO- CHOICE  NM, regarding a woman’s right to choose.

Progressive democrats at the meeting joined with GLTB advocates to fight for the wording on a Resolution to oppose restrictions on civil marriage based on sexual orientation. This was included and passed.

Other resolutions that were passed dealt with full funding of Medicaid; Full funding of Veterans Health Care; Support of Land Grants; Separation of Church and State; Repeal the Patriot Act; CAFÉ Standards; A Cap on Pay Day Loans; and No Privatization of Social Security.

After the State Party meeting, progressives across the state gathered to begin to discuss the formation of a Progressive Caucus within the party structure. The group was chaired by Moe Maestas of Albuquerque. There was representation from Deming, Portales, Taos, Carlsbad, Farmington, Las Cruces, as well as Santa Fe and Albuquerque. This group decided to move forward to form a caucus and will work on purpose, mission, organizational structure in the next few months.

The state party rules do not specify any accommodations for caucuses and will need to be amended. There were also breakout groups for a Veterans Caucus, a Native American Caucus and a Hispanic Policy group. The Young Democrats and Democrat Women also met after the meeting.

One Dem's View of the SCC Meeting in Socorro on Saturday

The Democratic Party State Central Committee meeting and related events took place this weekend in Socorro. I'll be printing a few views of what occurred. Here's one of them.

Report from Anne Kass:

John Wertheim had a rough day Saturday at the Democratic Party State Central Committee meeting in Socorro.  First the gay/lesbian group and its supporters discovered he had unilaterally removed their resolutions--which HAD been passed by the State Resolution Committee--from the packet of passed resolutions because, he explained, he thought all the others were non-controversial and could be passed quickly as a packet, where the gay/lesbian ones would spark controversy.  He didn't want to lose the whole packet.  So he put the gay civil rights resolutions on a separate unattached page that had the heading "Special Consideration." Logical, but stinky and not his call. 

So the gay/lesbian rights folks beat him up for an hour or so, before the meeting started.  Then I went after him about the living wage resolution, and by time I got to him he was frustrated and yelling about how he'd done more for the living wage than I ever had, and I was a conspiracy nut suggesting he and Richardson had got together to keep the living wage resolution buried, and how dare I question his commitment, and rant, rant, rant. 

I asked him why he tabled the resolution.  He said because Hess had objected to it.  I reminded him that Hess has merely wondered out loud whether a living wage was different than the minimum wage, and if he had listened and just answered the question, it would not have been a problem, and his action made it look like he and Hess were working together, and besides, why didn't he tell us that the tabled resolutions were history, and on and on.  Then some women started in on him because he had, unilaterally again, combined a couple of reproductive rights resolutions, which changed one of them, and so by time the meeting started, he had become rather contrite.

Early in the meeting he announced several appointments to the Central Committee and Sheryl Williams Stapleton took the microphone and challenged his authority to do that.  Then the Los Alamos County Chair, Steve Fetik made  a motion to change the agenda order so resolutions would come before the speakers (with Richardson, Denish, Bingaman, Udall, Patsy Madrid and state legislators all sitting there waiting to wax eloquent).  The motion was voted on by voice vote, and John declared that it had lost, but IF it did, it wasn't by much.

Then it came time to elect State officers, and the treasurer, secretary and vice chair went without a hitch, meaning the existing office-holders were voted back in unanimously.  Then the State Chair office came up and Ann Dunlap nominated Mel O'Reilly, who had agreed to have his name put forward, with Terry Riley seconding it.  We had speeches and a ballot vote.  Mel took 108 votes of the 294 cast, not bad given that all the speakers had gushed over John when they talked, and the challenge had come out of the blue.

When the resolution agenda item finally came to the floor, John announced that he had made a mistake by separating the gay/lesbian resolutions, and they were again part of the packet (even though in physical reality they were not, and so most people didn't even have a copy of them). Then there was a motion to adopt the whole packet of resolutions, a second, and then a woman got to the microphone about the reproductive rights thing, and John said, would the committee as a whole object if the separate reproductive rights resolution were added, and the crowd agreed it was o.k. and then Terry jumped up and said what about the living wage resolution, and John asked the crowd if it was o.k. to add that too, and the crowd agreed, and, as Molly Ivins says they say in Texas:  Viola!

Interestingly, every one of the speakers mentioned how half or more of the members of the Central Committee were new, and wasn't it wonderful that people had become involved, and welcome, and so on, but Richardson revealed how antsy all these new faces made him.  When he started his talk, he said, "There are a lot of new faces here.  In fact, who are you?"  and then he said, "I like new energy, and it's great that someone suggested that you want to talk about resolutions first and Richardson and Bingaman can just wait and listen to us."  I think the "leadership" are a little unsettled about the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.

If any of the so-called "leaders" who attended the meeting to give their speeches were really top notch, (Tom Udall actually comes close) she or he would have said, in response to Steve Fetik's motion that resolutions be discussed before speeches were given that it was a fine plan, and that the "leaders"--who always claim they want to hear from their constituents [but only by way of them responding to questionnaires created and sent out by the "leaders" which are designed to prevent dialog or, heaven forbid, actual face-to-face exchanges]--that the  leaders would love to participate in the discussion of resolutions.  But NOOOO.  They want to go first, talk, and get the heck out of there.  Listening?  What's that?

I also think, the next time Richardson starts to pontificate about how Democrats need to reconnect with American values, that the best way to do that is to engage in lively discussions about ideas (resolutions) so we can get beyond the labels and jargon of family values, whatever the heck that might mean, and start to actually develop operative meanings for the words that get thrown about.  Resolutions are how we articulate and understand the core principles and values, but it often seems to me that "leaders" just want to talk in sound-bites, talking points, buzz-words or what ever label you prefer to give to the empty language they all seem so skilled at using.

So, that's what you missed if you weren't there. It was a good event. 

Anne Kass

Effort to Get Living Wage Resolution to the SCC

From Anne Kass:
Everyone,

I received the email below from Mel O'Reilly who chaired the March 31, 2005 meeting of the Bernalillo County Democratic Party Resolutions Committee (and did a respectful, democratic job of it, let me say) at which the Committee unanimously adopted a living wage resolution:

Whereas the Democratic Party is, and has always been, the party or ordinary working men and women, in recognition of this fundamental relationship, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF BERNALILLO COUNTY that the DPNM is committed to the establishment and enforcement of a living wage for all New Mexico workers.

On April 2, 2005, the Bernalillo County Central Committee enthusiastically adopted this resolution without objection.

However, on April 9, 2005, when the State Central Committee Resolutions Committee met, chaired by John Wertheim, the Living Wage Resolution, and a number of other Resolutions about which there were questions or concerns, were, set aside momentarily to allow the Committee to quickly adopt the Resolutions from all the Counties about which there were no questions, with the promise/commitment (lie?) that the set aside Resolutions would be discussed fully later in the day.  That discussion never occurred, and it now appears that the resolutions that Chairman Wertheim "set aside momentarily" were intended by him to be set aside permanently.

It is my suspicion that the Democratic leadership does not want a living wage resolution as part of the party platform, having observed the business community raise more than a quarter million dollars to try to defeat the Santa Fe City Council Persons who dared to enact the living wage ordinance.  If that suspicion is accurate, then the least that Democratic leadership could do is demonstrate integrity and articulate it clearly rather than engage in this manipulation of rules to bury the resolution. 

I think that the rank and file have a right to know whether our current Democratic leadership side with business over workers on this issue.  I also think that the rank and file strongly supports a living wage platform plank.  My expectation is supported by the fact that in states and local communities where living wage and minimum wage increases were put to the voters in the 2004 election, the resolutions won, handily,   I have a sense, actually, that the rank and file would be stunned to learn that maybe, just maybe leadership's support for decent wages might be more rhetoric than reality.

The way this process has been managed by Mr. Wertheim seems to me to be authoritarian, condescending, patronizing and, well, undemocratic.  I don't know if it is possible to activate a 2/3rds vote at the State Central Committee in Socorro on Saturday, but I think we should try, and failing that, I think we should broadcast to the rank and file that the New Mexico Democratic Party seemingly doesn't really give a hoot that fully one third of New Mexico workers are not currently paid a living wage.

Thanks,
Anne Kass
************
(Note: Click to the continuation page for Mel O'Reilly's email to Anne Kass.)

Mel O'Reilly's email to Anne Kass:

John Wertheim is asking me to chair the Resolution portion of the State meeting on Saturday. his staff person said John wants to avoid discussion of the resolutions and to get a report of the last Sat. meeting adopted. The method of doing this is to submit an agenda which would limit discussion to the report. If  the agenda so states and is adopted it would require a 2/3 rds vote to suspend the agenda and discuss other issues or resolutions. I haven't seen the resolution package and therefore haven't accepted. Time is limited on Saturday,and to avoid consuming time the DPNM leaders need no floor resolutions or debate on resolutions.  I'm giving you a heads up as it is important to me to get resolutions adopted and to preserve the right of the rank and file to express themselves. If you or your friends wish to introduce resolutions or debate them please be aware of how the Robert's Rules may limit debate by agenda adoption. You will need a strong parliamentary procedure person, to advise you.

Off to Socorro

I'll be joining a bunch of other progressives traveling down to the Democratic Party State Central Committee meetings and events in Socorro later today. In addition to voting members who were elected to seats on the SCC, others will be going down as interested parties to check out the fundraiser reception tonight, attend the SCC meeting and participate in the planning meeting for a progressive caucus and afternoon training sessions on Saturday .

I hope we get a huge turnout at all the events, but especially the progressive caucus meeting. It will be terrific to meet like-minded folks from around the state to discuss organization and strategy.

Bosco the peach-faced lovebird, he of Sunday Bird Blogging fame, will be traveling with us. It will be his first extended trip on the road and at a hotel, so I imagine he'll be quite excited and curious about all things Dem. We bought him a new traveling cage (yellow with palm trees) and hope we'll get alot of use out of it if we actually get some weekends free of politics and we can camp out in some of our favorite haunts this summer. The cage even came with mosquito netting!

It's been quite a week for political meetings. It started with a legislative townhall meeting put on by the State Party in Albuquerque on Tuesday that featured local legislative committee chairs. The speeches in some cases were excellent, some went on a bit long, and not enough time was left for questioning and provocation from the audience (!), but the after-meeting discussions were top-notch. It was great to see a meeting where the check-in process was easy, comment cards, free bottled water and hard candies were at the sign-in tables, and a roaming microphone and video-cam recorded the events and allowed comments and questions to actually be heard.

I found it particularly satisfying brainstorming with Rep. Mimi Stewart, State Party Director of Field Operations Joaquin Guerra, Deputy Executive Director Gideon Elliot and others after the meeting about how we can improve the Party, get our message out to more people in every area of the state, run candidates in as many races as possible, get people trained and win a few elections. It was also fun meeting Field Organizer Meredith Dixon's handsome Bernese Mountain Dog!

Last night we missed the Third Thursday meeting of the Bernalillo County Dems because we wanted to attend our neighborhood association meeting. We should have skipped that one instead. What a disheartening experience to find that so many present strongly support the proposed new, massive, 24-hour Wal-Mart near Wyoming and Menaul.

It was sickening to hear people praising Wal-Mart, insisting they don't believe the company discriminates against women employees despite a huge class-action suit and saying they pretty much don't care that traffic, air pollution and noise will increase dramatically in the Hoffmantown neighborhood. Talk about moral values: I wouldn't be surprised if this bunch would trade their liberty and voting rights for the alleged "bargains" available at Wal-Mart. Merchandise produced under slave-labor conditions in Third World countries? Small, locally owned businesses closing down in the neighborhood due to Wal-Mart tactics? Who cares!

Ah, well, If anyone reading this attended the DPBC meeting last night at the law school, I'd appreciate hearing about it in the commments to this post. We hated to miss it.

And so, off to pack for Socorro. It will be interesting to see how the resolutions passed at last Saturday's State Resolutions Committee fare at the SCC. And what will happen with the numerous resolutions that got put aside for later discussion and voting that never happened. Considering the overwhelming support for many of these at the ward and county levels, like the one calling for a living wage, it would be a travesty for the Party to let them fade into oblivion. We'll be working on it.

Forums Added to Bernalillo County Dem Website

The website of the Bernalillo County Democratic Party has added a forum feature. To participate, you'll need to register, and then you'll be able to post in a variety of topic forums.

To check out the new feature, go to the main site and click on Discussion Forum at the top of the page.