Democracy for New Mexico

Guest Blog: Reelect Mary Gail Gwaltney as NM's Democratic National Committeewoman

This is a guest blog by Stephanie L. DuBois of Tularosa, NM.

I would like to tell you about my good friend, Mary Gail Gwaltney (right), our Democratic National Committeewoman. To those of us who are involved in party politics, the Gwaltney name is synonymous with the Democratic party. Mary Gail's organizational and fundraising skills for the party and candidates on all levels are widely known. Being the National Committeewoman is a serious full time commitment. Her strength lies in electing Democrats from all walks of life and then helping them in their bid for re-election.

When you meet Mary Gail you see an attractive woman very well put together. Her enthusiasm and boundless energy is most evident. And you know immediately she is a Democrat and values our Democratic principles. Her personality is always upbeat. She is a very giving person.She values her long-lasting friendships and treats everyone  with respect.

Mary Gail's family is her number one priority. Her family supports her work as National Committeewoman and supports her decision to continue serving in this role.

A Personal Anecedote
Mary Gail has impacted my participation in party politics and when I ran for elected office on many occasions. One particular incident comes to mind. After I was elected Vice-Chair of the Otero County Democratic party -- I think it was around 1994 -- Mary Gail ask me if I was going to attend the Legislative Dinner in Santa Fe. At that time, the price of the dinner ticket was $100. I didn't really have the money to go, which I expressed to her.

So I thought that would be the end of the conversation. But Mary Gail offered this suggestion: can you get 10 people that support you in your county to give you $10? if you can do this, I will find you a place to stay overnight. I did get those 10 people to donate. I attended the dinner. I spent the night at the home of one of Mary Gail's friends. It was important to her that as a county Vice-Chair I should attend this dinner. I made the effort to make it happen. I had a really good time. I met many people whom I consider my friends to this day. But without Mary Gail's encouragement I would not have gone.

Hardworking and Dedicated
In my opinion, Mary Gail is one of the hardest working Democrats I know. The position of National Committeewoman is a non-paying job, and it is a job with no budget. This past year she was in 12 states all at her own expense. She will  tell you it is not about the time and the expense. She does all this because she absolutely loves every minute of it. There are certainly sacrifices and adjustments that come with the responsibilities of the position -- like missing family celebrations, including her own birthday party. But I know Mary Gail does all of this because she feels strongly that electing Democrats to office will give us all a better life.

Better Communications
Communication  with the Democrats of New Mexico is very important to Mary Gail. She has a plan to propose to the state party to have a link on the state web-site for the National Committeeman and National Committeewoman to report on meetings of the DNC they have attended. This would be in addition to e-mail and personal phone calls, and would aim to keep all Democrats better informed of the important work being done by and at the DNC level of the party.

Reelect Mary Gail Gwaltney
To sum up, I am proud to know Mary Gail and to support her decision to continue serving in this full time, demanding position as National Committeewoman. Teamwork and her seniority will be most beneficial in our 2008 election, not only to elect a Democratic President but to have a tremendous chance to elect Democrats for the vacated Senate seat and three Congressional seats. Mary Gail is up to the challenge. I will be voting for my good friend on April 26, 2008. I hope you will join me.

Click for a brochure with more information about Mary Gail Gwaltney.

Thank you,
Stephanie L. DuBois

This is a guest blog by Stephanie L. DuBois of Tularosa, New Mexico. Guest blogs are an opportunity for our readers to express their opinions on matters relevant to the blog. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

The DPNM's State Central Committee will elect one Committeewoman one Committeeman at their meeting on Saturday, April 26, 2008 at the Barcelona Suites in Albuquerque, to serve terms on the DNC starting next year. Mary Gail Gwaltney has served as New Mexico's DNC Committeewoman for a number of years and is running for reelection. She also serves on the DNC Executive Board.

Technorati Tags:Mary Gail Gwaltney, New Mexico, Democratic Party of New Mexico, Democratic National Committee, DNC, Democrats

Guest Blog: Mikhail Gorbachev in Santa Fe

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox, alternative newspaper managing editor and gallery owner of Santa Fe, who participated in yesterday's press conference in Santa Fe featuring the former President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. President Gorbachev also appeared at a fundraising dinner to benefit the Santa Fe Institute and Global Green USA, and spoke to a standing room only crowd at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

On Monday I asked former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev if, after November, he would please be so kind as to lead and advise the next USA President as to how to get out of our quagmire. This is Gorbachev's reply, through a translator:

“The Middle East is what the entire world is watching. If things go badly for the USA, things go badly for all of us. America must not abuse the trust it has from its allies, much of which has virtually stopped. I am glad to see in this election a resurgence of interest in international affairs. As I will say in my talk tonight, judging from the USA’s military budget, your nation seems to be at war with the world, and I sense that the American people don’t like this at all. The size of your weapons budget is larger than it was at the peak of the Cold War, and larger all of the rest of the nuclear nations put together. Why do you continue to build these weapons? This is amazing to me!

I think that [former Secretaries of State] George Schultz and Henry Kissinger, [former US Senator] Sam Nunn, and [former Secretary of Defense] William Perry have put together recently a very interesting plan in this regard, for which I appreciate their initiative.

With a background of conflict, military budgets in the USA continue to grow, and you produce more weapons. The next president must show courage and responsibility to resist increasing your arms expenditures. Most serious nations in the European Union are studying the proposal by Schultz and Kissinger, and the USA should heed this proposal.

You must bear in mind, that many nations find it difficult to trust America if it insists on maintaining its weapon superiority.

After January 1, 1986, when I proposed an abolition of Nuclear Weapons, there was an immediate reaction, that many didn’t trust me, because of the USSR’s massive ground forces and conventional weapons. I replied by making some large cuts in spending for conventional weapons, and eventually we signed a treaty in this context in Paris.

So I would put the same question to America and to Americans!”

*****

At the beginning of today’s Press Conference in Santa Fe, Gorbachev defended Putin’s concern over USA building extensive missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, but said that it was good that Bush and Putin took the time to recently meet, once before Bush leaves office.

He also stated that the USA needs to “elect a President who gets along with the world, and doesn’t brandish a big stick and make threats.”

This is “up to the American people to persuade its leaders, and this burden can’t be shouldered by others.” After 15 years of “pushing” since leaving office in 1992, Gorbachev now believes that most world leaders and heads of state are “lagging,” and that what we need next is “planetary glasnost.”

He is encouraged by the progress in Russia of the political party he started, the Union of Social Democrats, given that more than 100 nations have the same kind of party, the Social Democrats. He said the history of the USSR was a 70 year experiment with Communism in its extreme Bolshevik form, and that Russia had “paid the price” for doing so.

Gorbachev reminisced on Yeltsin being pressured by the International Monetary Fund and a few US Think Tanks which came to impose on Russia a free market approach, which did a lot of good. He called it the “Washington Consensus” that was really the opposite ideology and effect of Bolshevism.

*****

I have met and talked with several Nobel Peace Laureates, as well as several others I thought should have won that honorable prize. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 95 individuals and 20 organizations since 1901.

The Laureates I have exchanged extensive correspondence with include His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and Kofi Annan. I have talked at great length with Jody Williams.  I asked Oscar Aria Sanchez, former-and-now-again President of Costa Rica, to help create a branch in Santa Fe of the United Nations University for Peace; Dag Hammarskjold’s nephew Knut was on the Board of Honorary Advisors of this conception, as was Gandhi’s grandson, Arun, and Einstein’s granddaughter, Evelyn. So was former USA Secretary of Interior, Stewart Udall.

As an organization making a huge difference in the world, Doctors without Borders is my highest inspiration daily in my work to get the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, aspartame, off the market by rescinding its approval to be sold.

Mairead Corrigan of Ireland was the first Nobel Peace Laureate I talked with for several hours at the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament in 1978. I also had a very long conversation with Canada's Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and I have always thought he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Certainly, George Mc Govern deserves something like a Nobel Peace Prize, for his lifetime of pacifism.

Yet somehow, today, former President Mikhail Gorbachev was the most compelling. I am certain that because I was asking on behalf of tens of millions of Americans and several billions people in hundreds of nations, that he really will help to advise and guide the next USA President to bring the USA out of the Middle East, and to end the war in Iraq.

There really is no choice.

This is a guest blog by Stephen Fox of Santa Fe. Guest blogs provide our readers a chance to express themselves on topics of interest to the political discourse here, and may or may not express the views of the DFNM blog. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Technorati Tags: Mikhail Gorbachev Santa Fe New Mexico Middle East U.S. Military disarmament

NM House District 13: Guest Blog by Dem Challenger Eleanor Chávez

This is a guest blog by progressive Democrat Eleanor Chávez, who's challenging long-time Dem incumbent Dan Silva in NM House District 13. Her campaign has been endorsed by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1564 of New Mexico, as well as the New Mexico Federation of Labor. As I've said before, if we want to change how business is done at the New Mexico Legislature, we need to support candidates willing to take on the status quo.

Whether or not you live in District 13, consider attending the "Progressives for Eleanor Chávez" happy hour at Scalo, 3500 Central Ave SE in Nob Hill. It will take place on Friday, April 11th, from 5:30-7:00 PM. Suggested donation $50.00 but any amount is welcome.

Dear Friends,
In early February several colleagues in the social justice and labor community urged me to consider a run for the State House of Representatives, District 13. After much thought and discussion with my family, I've decided to accept the challenge.

Since the early 70's I have worked to make the world we live in a better place. While attending the University of Washington I worked with student farm worker boycott committees, worked to ensure that Chicano programs were not dismantled, and worked against funding cuts of childcare services to low income student parents.

For over 20 years I have been a member the SouthWest Organizing Project, one of the strongest grassroots organizations in the state. With other SWOP members I participated in voter registration drives, community surveys, and campaigns to educate our communities about the impact of toxic dumping. I served on the board of SWOP for many years and remain an active member.

I am currently the director for the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees District 1199NM. We represent health care workers in Las Vegas, Taos, Los Alamos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico. In our recent contract negotiations at University of New Mexico Hospital we were successful in a living wage campaign where no worker will receive less than $1.00 per hour wage increase! Good paying jobs with benefits are essential to our ability to raise our families and we all know the right of workers to organize and negotiate over wages, benefits and working conditions must be protected.

As the health care crisis deepens I believe systemic reform is the only answer. Since the early 90's I have worked with other activists to pass legislation that would ensure all New Mexicans have health insurance. For over three years I have chaired the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign, a coalition of 135 organizations dedicated to the passage of the Health Security Act. 

The time has come for me to offer my services as House Representative from District 13. Growing up in New Mexico I learned early that justice is something that we have to struggle for and work towards.  I want to bring a voice for working people to the Roundhouse. My opponent is a 20 year incumbent who has sold out to polluters, developers and insurance industry lobbyists. This Democratic primary race is one of the hottest in the state and the winner will face no opposition in the general election.

In order to win, we are building a strong, aggressive, grassroots campaign. We have gathered enough nominating petition signatures to secure a place on the ballot for the June 3rd primary. We have also secured the number one slot on the ballot for the District 13 race. We have built a solid campaign team and we have designed a plan to win. But we need your help to ensure a victory on June 3rd. We will need thousands of fliers, 100s of yard signs and many hours of walking to knock on doors and talk about the issues with our neighbors.

I am humbly asking those, like you, who share my commitment to justice to support my campaign now.  In order to get this campaign off to a running start we need to raise $50,000 in the next two months—half of that by early April. That's a big task but we can do it if people like you pledge your support. 

Your gift of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500 or $1,000 will help me raise the vital "early seed money" I need to successfully launch this campaign.

You can make donations on-line on my page on Act Blue or you can mail checks to the Eleanor Chávez for District 13 Campaign, to 1307 Del Maestro SW Albuquerque, New Mexico  87121. If you would like to volunteer I can be reached at eleanorchavez@gmail.com; or call the campaign at 967-1337.

Thank you very much in advance for your generous support!

Sincerely,
Eleanor Chávez
https://eleanorchavez.blogspot.com/

This is a guest blog by Eleanor Chávez. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, please contact me by clicking on the Email Me button on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

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.

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.

Don Wiviott Guest Blog: Good Jobs, A Healthier Planet & Freedom from Foreign Oil

This is a guest blog by Don Wiviott, Democratic candidate for Congress in New Mexico's Third District:

It’s time for action.

Gas costs over $3 a gallon and it’s climbing. Home heating prices are up 11% this year and prices continue to climb. The Middle East provides 17% of America’s oil and that percentage is growing. Global warming continues unabated. And, our shaky economy means too many New Mexicans are worried about their jobs.

It’s time to harness our potential both as a country and in northern New Mexico.

When it comes to wind, solar and geo-thermal power, rural New Mexico is to renewable energy what Saudi Arabia is to oil. We have the best scientists at Los Alamos to harness and develop the latest energy technologies. We can create jobs now by encouraging spin-off companies from the Lab and producing local energy through wind, solar, and locally grown crops. And we have hard working people who are looking for stable, good paying jobs with good benefits.

It’s time to be bold.

It’s time to slash welfare for big oil corporations and invest that money in the clean technologies of the future. By reducing big oil’s windfall subsidies, we’ll free up funds that can be used for tax credits and subsidized loans that will allow more New Mexicans to buy clean, environmentally sustainable technology. And some of those funds will also be invested in sustainable energy research, innovative new energy companies and clean energy production right here in New Mexico.

It’s time to lead.

When I talk about using clean energy to create jobs and opportunity, I’m not talking about an abstract, impossible challenge. I’m talking about successful, locally owned business.

I studied the causes and cures for global warming in college. I launched a successful business in Santa Fe that has energy efficiency at its core. And, last year I joined Governor Richardson to push legislation that promotes solar power.

As a businessman, I know that building a prosperous, clean energy economy is possible. I’ve created hundreds of jobs building environmentally sustainable communities. And with your help, I want to bring my fresh perspective and new ideas to Washington – a place that needs bold leadership, not more career politicians.

But I’m not waiting until I get to Washington to lead. As I did earlier this year when I filed a lawsuit to ensure that New Mexicans could have a choice on their primary ballot, right now I’m promoting sustainable energy development by touring the 3rd Congressional District in a van powered by cooking oil from Santa Fe’s Flying Tortilla. At a time when gas is three dollars a gallon, we’ve got a Dodge diesel that can run for virtually free on locally produced energy.

Our green van is cheap to operate and great for the environment. It's proof that even a large New Mexico car or truck can be clean, green and fun to drive. That’s why we’re out spreading the message that with a bold, new investment in the clean technologies of the future, we can both create good paying jobs in New Mexico and make clean, environmentally sustainable technologies available for hard working New Mexico families.

I’ll see you on the campaign trail!

This is a guest blog by NM-03 Democratic Congressional candidate, Don Wiviott. Click to visit his .

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

Guest Blog: Why New Progressives Should Support Obama

This is a guest blog by Eric Griego, Moe Maestas and Javier Benavidez:

It is rare in American politics that a leader emerges who inspires people to look beyond their political party, their race, or their gender.  A leader who truly restores faith in the idea that we are all in this together and that it is still possible to change America for the better.  We believe Barack Obama is that leader.

With a few notable exceptions, the two remaining Democrats have similar platforms.  Obama has been a strong and steady opponent of the war in Iraq.  Clinton voted to go to war.  Obama has the most progressive position on immigration, including a path to citizenship. Clinton flip flopped on the issue of issuing drivers’ licenses to immigrants to protect public safety.  While Clinton is as hawkish as conservative Republicans on using diplomacy, Senator Obama believes we should never negotiate out of fear, but we should never fear to negotiate with some of our toughest enemies.  Not with a blank check and no agenda, but with an earnest resolve to move diplomacy where we can.  Instead of forcing people who cannot afford insurance to buy it, Obama’s healthcare plan focuses on cutting costs.  Clinton’s plan looks a lot like the failed and underfunded Massachusetts model.

Almost 50 years ago, another young Senator inspired a nation with his message of unity and bold change for America.   His name was John F. Kennedy.  Like Senator Obama he challenged Americans to believe that we could change history by making America work for all of us again.  He was not the typical candidate.  He was young.  He was from a religious group (Catholics) that had never fielded a Presidential candidate.   Some people at the time said he was a gamble.  However, his bold plan for America changed the course of history.

One of JFK’s closest allies in the U.S. Senate, was a man, who grew up in Albuquerque’s Barelas neighborhood, Senator Dennis Chavez.  Dennis Chavez co-chaired the national Viva Kennedy campaign, which helped deliver not just the state for Kennedy, but most of the Hispanic vote nationwide. It was the first time that Hispanic voters were mobilized enough to determine the outcome of a national campaign.

Sadly, the Clinton campaign is claiming that Hispanics are monolithic and according to her pollster, Sergio Bendexin, will not support a Black candidate.  The myth of a brown-black rift is just that – a myth.  A fairytale if you will.  As Time magazine pointed out, Hispanics have helped elect several big city Black mayors from Harold Washington in Chicago to Wellington Webb in Denver.  Here in New Mexico Obama’s state campaign co-chair James Lewis was elected by an overwhelming Democratic majority – most of whom were Hispanic.

This should not be a black vs. white election, or even a black vs. brown election.  It should also not be a man vs. women election. It should be a future vs. the past election.  An innovation vs. the status quo election.  Color, gender or age should be irrevelant.

In the end, the differences between Obama and Clinton are minor compared to the Republican alternatives.  Both Obama and Clinton are more than qualified to be President.  The real question is whether we want a new direction, a fresh approach, a new way.  For those of us who are trying to be part of a new kind of politics here in New Mexico, we think Obama offers the best hope for our future. 

We hope you will join us.

Guest Blog: Brian Colón on NM Presidential Preference Caucus

This is a guest blog by Brian S. Colón, who chairs the Democratic Party of New Mexico. If you have a few hours to spare, please consider volunteering to help with the Caucus.

Dear New Mexico Democrats,
The New Mexico Presidential Preference Caucus is just days away! With 184 voting locations around New Mexico, we have a tremendous amount of work ahead of us. The Democratic Party of New Mexico needs your help! If you are interested in volunteering over the next few days to make this event as successful as possible, please contact us at 505-830-3650 to volunteer.

Next Tuesday, February 5th, New Mexico Democrats will have an opportunity to choose a nominee for President and take the first affirmative step this year towards ending eight years of a Republican White House. 

I encourage you to help with New Mexico’s turnout and vote at a Caucus Site on February 5th. Voting will be held between Noon and 7 PM. Remember that although this is called a “Caucus” this is actually just like a regular election in which you will cast a secret ballot vote for the Democratic nominee for president.

To find your caucus voting site, visit our website at www.nmdemocrats.org and click on Feb 5th Caucus Voting Sites. The list is organized by County and you will need to know your registered precinct. If you need to find out the voting precinct where you are registered, you can locate this on your voter card or you can call our Albuquerque Headquarters at (505) 830-3650.

Again, DPNM will need many volunteers to help with counting absentee ballots, receiving results from around the State on Caucus Day, answering phones, and preparing materials for Caucus Day. Please volunteer a few hours of your time to change New Mexico and our country for decades to come!

Best regards,
Brian S. Colón
Chairman, Democratic Party of New Mexico

This is a guest blog by Brian S. Colón, who chairs the Democratic Party of New Mexico. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand corner of the page.

Guest Blog by Bill McCamley: All You Need is Rove?

This is a guest blog by Bill McCamley, who's a Democrat running for Congress in NM-02. Bill is one of the candidates the NM netroots is supporting in our True Blue New Mexico effort. Please donate if you can.

What Martin Heinrich wrote yesterday about Karl Rove and George Bush is absolutely true.  Rove is “the epitome of everything that’s wrong with Washington,” and I encourage you to read Martin's comments about how Rove and company have poisoned the political atmosphere in Washington.  However, I want to focus on one particular reason why Rove, President Bush, and the Bush Administration have been so destructive: They put politics and greed over competent governance.

From the string of unqualified and incompetent officials they chose to put in Bush’s Cabinet—for example, Michael Brown and Alberto Gonzalez, to name just two—to the billions of dollars lost in unmonitored no-bid contracts in Iraq, to letting industries completely decide their own regulatory policies, this Administration has been one long nightmare of incompetence.

As 2008 kicks off, the evidence of this incompetence just gets stronger.  The economic divide between “haves” and “have-nots” continues to grow wider.  With a recession either looming or already underway, families throughout New Mexico—and especially the many poor counties in the 2nd Congressional District— will find it harder to make ends meet.  The Bush Administration still has no plan to end the War in Iraq.  And almost fifty million Americans—including one in five New Mexicans—still have no health insurance.  These facts will be the legacy of Bush and Rove.

Instead of this failure and the politics of fear, there is another way. 

We Can Work It Out
Since I got into this race last April against Steve Pearce, I have been talking about the need for change in Washington—and not just change as some broad, generic concept.  I have been talking about a very specific kind of change: A change to focus on results. 

In Doña Ana County, we have shown what results we can achieve when we work together to get things done for the people we represent.  As County Commissioner, I worked to reform the County’s healthcare system, to establish the first paid County Fire Department, to strengthen the County’s ethics policies, and to bring new jobs and opportunity through negotiating policies that assist border development and high-tech job creation. It’s this record and this focus on results that I want to take to Washington.

What will it take to achieve this in DC?  It’s going to take commitment.  It will take a commitment to stand up a fight for what is right, not what is politically easy.  It will take a commitment to work extremely hard from the moment the election is decided.  And it will take a commitment to work together with people from all parties who are fed up with partisan bickering (and that includes many Republicans and independents).  I promise you that those are all commitments I will keep when I get to Washington. 

Of course, we’re going to have to ask for some commitments from you, if we want to make this a reality.

With A Little Help from Our Friends
This True Blue New Mexico effort is a great step toward uniting New Mexico Democrats and the netroots to bring real change to Washington.  Both FBIHOP and Democracy for New Mexico deserve credit and thanks for organizing this drive.  Now we need your help.  Can you support our campaign and the TrueBlue effort?  We thank you for your support.

For more information on our campaign, please check out our website: www.billmccamley.com.

This is a guest blog by Bill McCamley of Las Cruces, a Democrat who's running Congress our Second Distict in Southern New Mexico.

To donate online to one or more of the True Blue New Mexico candidates, click here. If we want excellent candidates to be successful in their campaigns, we need to support them now with donations and volunteer time. Please give what you can afford to support these Democrats -- no donation is too small, no number of hours of volunteering is too few.

To read our previous posts on this effort, visit our archive.

Guest Blog by Martin Heinrich: Beyond the Politics of Rove

This is a guest blog by Martin Heinrich, Democratic candidate for Congress in NM-01. He's one of the candidates featured on the NM netroots' True Blue New Mexico page.

Karl Rove is the epitome of everything that’s wrong with Washington and the Republican establishment. He’s the king of political dirty tricks and smear campaigns. His Machiavellian tactics have no moral compass and are divisive at a time when the nation is ready to unite for progress.

The politics of Rove are the politics of lies, thoughtless partisanship, deception and personal attacks. He allegedly sanctioned a racist push poll that wrongly claimed that fellow Republican John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. He was tied to a homophobic push poll that asked voters whether they are "more or less likely to vote for Governor [Ann] Richards if [they] knew her staff is dominated by lesbians." This is the same Rove that used the slash and burn politics of personal destruction to paint a genuine American patriot and Vietnam War hero, former Senator Max Cleland (D-GA), as a friend of Osama bin Laden.

It’s not just campaign tactics that define Karl Rove. As a Bush Administration official, Rove played a key role in the run up to the war in Iraq. He chaired meetings of the White House Iraq Group and devised communications strategies that the White House used to sell the disastrous war to the American people.

If orchestrating the sale of the Iraq War wasn’t bad enough, Rove was also investigated for his role in the Valerie Plame Affair. And, he was allegedly one of the prime movers involved in the U.S. Attorney scandal, which included firing New Mexico’s US Attorney David Igelesias.

At a 2006 White House holiday party, New Mexico Republican Party Chair Allen Weh complained to Rove that former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias failed to bring down politically motivated indictments during the campaign. Rove responded to Weh saying: “He’s gone.”

Today, Karl Rove is back in New Mexico helping his friend Allen Weh. He’s raising hundreds of thousands of dollars from hard right wing oil and gas fatcats. That’s money that will be used by New Mexico Republicans to employ Karl Rove’s style of slash and burn politics of personal destruction.

Together, we can fight back.

One of the things I am most proud of is my record of bringing people together and bridging the partisan divide.  On the Albuquerque City Council I brought business interests together with conservationists and citizen activists to craft an archeological ordinance and to conserve billions of gallons of our limited water resources.  Even when I successfully pressed an increase in the minimum wage, I kept my door open to those who disagreed or did not support the effort.  Had I not taken that inclusive approach, tens of thousands of hard working New Mexicans might not have gotten the raise they deserved.

I believe passionately that our adversaries need not be our enemies.  The Karl Rove approach ensures politics are mired in unnecessary partisanship -- even common sense solutions like the State Children’s Health Insurance Plan (S-CHIP), which would give health care to tens of thousands of uninsured New Mexican children, are stymied by the kind of extreme partisanship that Rove represents. 

We can do better, and when I am in Washington, we will.

Obviously, Karl Rove has taken an early interest in New Mexico and you can be sure that he’ll be following this race very closely. That’s why I need your help. I need the resources to fight back against Rove’s politics of personal destruction.

Together, we can send a message to New Mexico Republicans that the smear and fear tactics of Rove have no place in New Mexico. I hope you’ll help by supporting my campaign and the New Mexico blogosphere’s True Blue New Mexico effort with a generous contribution.

This is a guest blog by NM-01 Democratic Congressional candidate Martin Heinrich.

To learn more about the NM netroots' True Blue New Mexico effort to raise campaign donations for NM Congressional candidates read our previous post or donate directly at the True Blue New Mexico page on Act Blue.

To see our previous coverage on the 2008 NM-01 Congressional race, visit our archive.

If you'd like to submit a guest blog for possible publication on this blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the upper left-hand side of the page.