Democracy for New Mexico

Calling All Young and Not So Young Democrats

If you're a young Democrat or just want to support young Democrats, this event is for you:

Young Democrats of New Mexico Chili Cook-Out Fundraiser
with State Party Chair Brian Colon
Saturday, June 9th, 2007; 6:00 PM
at the home of Chris Garcia
6230 St. Joseph's Ct., ABQ
$20 Contribution

If you have any questions please contact Terah Maestas-Javaheripour at terahmjava@gmail.com. For more information on Young Democrats of America (YDA), visit the national website. The newly elected officers of the Young Democrats of New Mexico are:

• Antonio Sandoval, President
• Milagros “Mimi” Aledo, Vice President
• Ray Armijo, Secretary
• Terah Maestas-Javaheripour, Treasurer 
• Erik Paulson, National Committeeman
• Angela Chavez, National Committeewoman

New Blog Debuts on Healthcare in NM

Speaking of healthcare in New Mexico, Terry Schleder, MPH, an epidemiologist who's involved with the Community Coalition for Healthcare Access and operates Community Health Consulting Services in Albuquerque, has started a blog on the topic at Healthcare is a Human Right NM. She'll try to demystify health policy and financing issues and provide a public forum for exploring effective solutions to our pressing health coverage problems. In her first post she explains she intends to "slay sacred & corporate cows in the service of healthcare justice for all in New Mexico." Go say hi.

Goodling Testimony Prompts DPNM Chair Colón to Query Domenici on U.S. Attorney Firings

An article in today's Albuquerque Tribune reports on the testimony by Monica Goodling at yesterday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on the U.S. Attorney firings. Bottom line: She doesn't remember much of anything either. Seems everyone at the Alberto Gonzales DOJ has amnesia. Amazing how not one person in the Department of Justice will take credit for putting the names on the U.S. Attorney firing list, even though the firings were, you know, just routine and based on poor job performance.

Goodling's testimony did raise more issues about Sen. Pete Domenici's involvement in the firings:

Goodling testified she did not know who put Iglesias on the list of U.S. attorneys fired Dec. 7. But she did reveal that Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty covered up Domenici's involvement in a private briefing McNulty had with the Senate Judiciary Committee in January and in a public hearing Feb. 6.

"He thought the senator would prefer to address those concerns privately with his colleagues, and he wanted to give him (Domenici) the opportunity to do that," Goodling said.

At one staff meeting prior to the briefings, one official - she could not remember who - suggested to McNulty that somebody should call Domenici's chief of staff, Steve Bell, "and see if he wanted to address the concerns with his colleagues before the briefing took place."

Goodling did not say whether the call to Bell was made.

In response to Goodling's testimony, the new Chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico, Brian Colón, asked Domenici and his chief of staff, Steve Bell, for some answers about their contacts with the DOJ and Rove. Click for page 1 and page 2 (pdf) of his letter to Senator Domenici. Excerpts:

This scandal has quickly spun into an indictment of the entire Department of Justice and its ability to fairly administer the nation's laws, and you stand squarely in the middle of the vortex. There is no longer any doubt that you were singularly responsible for Mr. Iglesias' firing - the only thing still in question is the manner in which you secured that firing and whether you crossed any ethical or legal lines in the process.

... The Senate Ethics Committee will weigh the legal questions surrounding your role, but in the meantime, you have a larger obligation to the people of New Mexico to finally explain your actions in detail. To that end, I request that you:

1. Detail any contacts between you and your staff, including your chief of staff Steve Bell, and Monica Goodling or other Department of Justice officials such as former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson.
2. Detail any contacts between you or your staff, including your chief of staff Steve Bell, and Karl Rove and his staff.

If there are emails between your staff and the Department of Justice or White House office of Political Affairs, you owe it to the public to release them. If your executive assistant maintains call logs, a common practice in Senate offices, please release any such call logs noting calls either from or to the Department of Justice or White House.

As reported in the Tribune article:

McNulty had told the senators that Iglesias and the other U.S. attorneys were fired for poor performance, prompting Iglesias to reveal the phone calls from Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, also a Albuquerque Republican, and leading to the subsequent admissions by Domenici that he had pressed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and McNulty to fire Iglesias.

During one meeting, Goodling said she wrote down that "Domenici says he doesn't move cases," presumably referring to Iglesias. She said she didn't remember who made the comment.

Committee member Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat, asked if that "referred to the Aragon investigation." Goodling said she only knew about the Aragon case from press reports.

"Certainly, I knew that Senator Domenici had concerns with public corruption cases," said Goodling.

For information on other aspects of Goodling's testimony, see these AP and Washington Post articles.

Rey Garduño First to Qualify for Public Campaign Funding in ABQ City Council Race

Suzanne Prescott has the story over at . If you can, remember to link up with the new web radio show, New Mexico Blog Radio, today at 4:30 PM. Rey, who's running for Albuquerque City Council in District 6, will be joined by Debbie O'Malley, who's running for reelection in District 2, to discuss their experience with Albuquerque's new public campaign finance law. Listeners can call in and ask questions during the half hour show by dialing (718) 664-9717. I'll be joining Suzanne, who produced the radio show Insight New Mexico that aired on 1350 AM during the Legislative Session, as a co-host for today's show. Visit https://www.blogtalkradio.com/nmblogradio at 4:30 PM today to listen in. And cut me some slack if I come across on the show as a bit nervous -- I'm a rank amateur in the radio hosting department, internet or otherwise!

For more info, see our previous post on New Mexico Blog Radio, as well as our post archive on the 2007 Albuquerque Municipal Elections, which will take place this coming October.

'We The People' Thursday: Eric Griego

Here Ye! Here Ye!

WE THE PEOPLE

Eric Griego 

A visit from former City Councilor who spearheaded
Clean Elections for Albuquerque

May 24, 2007 - 6 PM

Albuquerque, Channel 27
Worldwide On The Net!
call in - 505-346-1633
Click for Streaming Media
https://quote-unquote.org/

WE THE PEOPLE is an innovative television show looking for TRUTH and TRANSPARENCY in local, state and federal governments. THANKS FOR WATCHING. Mickey Bock/Judith Binder - Hosts

Memorial Day: Democratic Party of Bernalillo County Picnic

Can you surrey? Can you picnic? Okay, I'm showing my generational origins by harkening back to that old Laura Nyro song, but you get the idea. The DPBC is hosting a Memorial Day picnic for all Democrats at the Raymond G. Sanchez Community Center at 9800 Fourth Street NW in Albuquerque. (Click for map.) Bring a blanket, bring a picnic basket and meet fellow Dems on Monday, May 28th, from Noon to 3:00 PM for food, fun and games. Click for a (PDF) and spread the word. For more info call the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County at 830-3650, Ext. 22.

Barnett and Rogers Implicated (Again) in Rove's Plan to Keep Minorities Off Voter Rolls

Facts be damned. No matter how much evidence undermines the validity of the Republican "voter fraud" claims, they keep on insisting there's a "there" there. And they keep sticking to their odd view that, for some strange reason, certain Republican U.S. Attorneys -- many of whom have since been fired by BushCo -- didn't want to prosecute "voter fraud" even though evidence was supposedly abundant. It's never really been explained why any U.S. Attorney would avoid issuing headline-grabbing indictments if the cases could be made.

The truth is that BushCo wanted these prosecutions in battleground states despite there being no real evidence of crimes -- and they were dedicated to applying political pressure to get them even if they weren't justified. Politics is politics and political gain often seems to be the only goal of Rove et al. What's a little destruction of the integrity and ethics of the U.S. Justice Department when Congressional seats are at stake? One of the top priorities of Rove's strategy for the last few election cycles was to disenfranchise minority voters and discourage them from registering to vote. After all, minority voters tend to vote for Democrats. Creating the "voter fraud" myth and launching headline-making investigations were a big part of Rove's plan, and pressure was applied liberally to U.S. Attorneys who were reluctant to play ball.

Wa-Po Piece Debunks "Voter Fraud"
In a Washington Post op-ed this week, Harold Meyerson debunks the long-running Repub "voter fraud" myth in no uncertain terms. Quote:

... five of the 12 federal prosecutors either sacked or considered for sacking last year had been singled out by Rove and other administration officials for nonperformance on voter fraud. Amazingly, all five came from states -- Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington and Wisconsin -- where Republicans were embroiled in tight election contests.

With the home office in Washington breathing down their necks, why did these experienced prosecutors fail to bring voter fraud indictments? The crime, after all, had become a major Justice Department concern. Starting in 2002, Justice required every U.S. attorney to designate a district election officer, whose job it would be to end this epidemic of electoral fraud. These officers' attendance was required at annual training seminars, where they were taught how to investigate, prosecute and convict fraudulent voters. The statutes were adequate; the investigators were primed, well funded and raring to go.

And nothing happened. For the simple reason that when it comes to voter fraud in America, there's no there there. Voter fraud is a myth -- not an urban or rural myth, as such, but a Republican one. [emphasis mine]

...  to prosecute or convict more than a handful of people for voter fraud isn't for lack of trying. Since 2002, the Justice Department's Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative has, as Gonzales put it, "made enforcement of election fraud and corruption offenses a top priority." And yet between October 2002 and September 2005, just 38 cases were brought nationally, and of those, 14 ended in dismissals or acquittals, 11 in guilty pleas, and 13 in convictions.

... And thus, as has so often been the case in the Bush presidency, a government department was instructed to negate its raison d'etre. Just as consumer protection and environmental protection agencies were transformed into agencies protecting manufacturers and despoilers, so Justice -- whose imperishable glory was its role in extending the franchise to African Americans during the civil rights years -- was told that its new mission was to suppress the franchise.

Rogers and Barnett Work the Rove Strategy
Now evidence is mounting that local Repub political operatives Pat Rogers (right) and Mickey Barnett (below left) were, in essence, part of an organized effort in New Mexico to pressure Iglesias to help carry out Rove's strategy.

Barnett was once a legislative aid to Sen. Domenici and was his pick for a slot on the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors. A former NM Senator, Barnett has also lobbied on behalf of the payday loan industry, Corrections Corporation of Amerca and gambling interests. Albuquerque attorney Patrick Rogers served on the board of the American Center for Voting Rights Legislative Fund, which has ties to The Donatelli group involved in the Swiftboat plot during the 2004 election. He testified about "voter fraud" and the need for voter ID at a U.S House Administration Committee hearing organized by fromer Repub Rep. Bob Ney, who later was jailed for crimes connected with the Abramoff scandal.

In a major story in yesterday's LA Times, David Iglesias describes a politicized lunch where Rogers once again applied the pressure:

Weeks before the 2006 midterm election, then-New Mexico U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias was invited to dine with a well-connected Republican lawyer in Albuquerque who had been after him for years to prosecute allegations of voter fraud.

"I had a bad feeling about that lunch," said Iglesias, describing his meeting at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen with Patrick Rogers, a lawyer who provided occasional counsel to the New Mexico Republican Party.

When the voter fraud issue came up, Iglesias said, he explained to Rogers that in reviewing more than 100 complaints, he hadn't found any solid enough to justify criminal charges.

... Rogers, Iglesias recalled, had pressed him in 2004 and then again just before the 2006 election to push for voter fraud convictions in the state. Iglesias said he was so concerned about the propriety of the preelection get-together with Rogers that he asked a colleague from the office to join him as a witness.

Sour Grapes When Iglesias Won't Cooperate
As it became more and more clear that Iglesias wouldn't go along with the "voter fraud" charade, complaints by Rogers, Barnett and Sen. Pete Domenici bombarded the Justice Department and White House, urging that Iglesias be replaced. The plot thickens and "all roads lead to Rove."

Unbeknownst to Iglesias, a few months before that lunch, Rogers and another Republican attorney from New Mexico, Mickey Barnett, had complained about Iglesias at the Justice Department in Washington. The session was arranged with the assistance of the department's then-White House liaison, Monica M. Goodling, and an aide to White House political strategist Karl Rove, according to e-mails released recently by congressional investigators.

One of those they met with was Matthew Friedrich, a senior counselor to Gonzales. Friedrich would meet again with Rogers and Barnett in New Mexico, where, he told congressional investigators, the pair complained about Iglesias. They made it clear "that they did not want him to be the U.S. attorney…. They mentioned that they had communicated that with Sen. Domenici, and they also mentioned Karl Rove," Friedrich said, according to a transcript provided by congressional investigators.

... Iglesias has said that he believes "all roads lead to Rove" in explaining the dismissals and that he is counting on the Office of Special Counsel to find the truth.

Obstruction of Justice?
Another fired U.S. Attorney says the political pressure could merit a criminal investigation:

This week, another fired U.S. attorney who has said he felt pressure on voter fraud cases, John McKay of Seattle, said he thought interference with Iglesias and other prosecutors amounted to "possible obstruction of justice." He predicted that a criminal inquiry would be launched. He said he felt pressure to bring voter fraud charges in his district after a 129-vote margin put a Democratic governor into office in Washington.

Remember that both Sen. Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson made phone calls to Iglesias in the run-up to the 2006 election that he perceived to be intimidating. Clearly, a message was being sent to Iglesias and other recalcitrant U.S. Attorneys that they must proceed with politically motivated indictments and investigations about "voter fraud" and other matters or face the wrath of the DOJ and Rove. Those who didn't respond were put on the to-be-fired list.

Domenici Pushes Rogers to Replace Iglesias
A final "irony": Pat Rogers was one of the names reportedly submitted by Domenici as a suggested replacement for Iglesias. I guess Rogers did such a good job keeping the pressure on Iglesias that Domenici believed he deserved a reward, like any good flunky.

Jeff Armijo Pleads Not Guilty to Four Count Indictment

It was revealed yesterday that a grand jury indicted former Dem state auditor candidate Jeff Armijo in mid-March for one felony count of false imprisonment and three misdemeanor battery counts in connection with accusations of sexual misconduct from August, 2006. He was booked into the Bernalillo County Detention Center on April 10 and released on his own recognizance. He's pleaded not guilty on all counts. Armijo was forced to resign as a candidate last Fall when allegations that resulted in the current indictment became public. Hector Balderas replaced him on the ballot and was successful in his election for state auditor. Heath Haussamen has the most complete story. There are also stories in the Albuquerque Tribune and Albuquerque Journal and Santa Fe New Mexican.

It's only fair to remember that being indicted doesn't mean a person is guilty. Innocence is presumed unless and until that person is convicted in a court of law. What the indictment does mean is that Armijo will have his day in court, one way or the other, unless the District Attorney throws the case out.

For more background on this controversial story, here are some of our previous posts on the situation:

• Jeff Armijo Withdraws as Auditor Candidate, 8/30/06
• Jeff Armijo Press Conference Set for 4:45 Today, 9/5/06
• Armijo Announces He'll Stay in Race: Others Say He's Already Off the Ballot, 9/5/06
• Latest on Armijo Ballot Battle, 9/6/06
• Hector Balderas Continuing His Run for State Auditor, 9/6/06
• Armijo to File Suit Today to Stay on Ballot, Cancel SCC Meeting, 9/8/06
• State Dem Party and Jeff Armijo File Suits in Ballot Battle, 9/9/06

Spread the Word: New Grant Program Available for Progressive Youth Organizers in NM

From Skyline Public Works:
A new grant program is being offered to young organizers in New Mexico. Its part of a program we call the Go Grants. Click for a flyer (doc) with more information. We are offering a quarter of a million dollars to new or existing organizations that target young people for registration, voting, but then further keep them engaged after the elections are over with service projects and a legislative agenda.

If you know of any people who might be interested in something like this please encourage them to apply, pass it around, or blog about it themselves.

Sarah Burris
Director of Development and Fundraising
Skyline Public Works
650.364.2700, sarah@skylinepublicworks.com

NM Health Coverage Study Preliminary Results: Health Security Act Option Could Cut Costs

Hallelujah. According to an Albuquerque Journal article on yesterday's meeting of the Richardson-appointed Health Coverage for New Mexicans Committee, preliminary results of a Mathematica study comparing three universal coverage options indicate New Mexico could reap savings by implementing universal health care coverage. Perhaps most compelling was Mathematica's finding that the Health Security Act option -- which would replace the current hodge podge of insurers with a single co-op arrangement to achieve universal coverage -- would result in a potential savings of millions of dollars:

Mathematica estimated that $6.11 billion will be spent in New Mexico on health care in 2007, excluding spending on Medicare and a few other programs the company didn't evaluate. Spending under the proposed Health Security Act, which would eliminate most private insurance and give control of health care financing to a commission, would be $5.93 billion.

The Health Security Act option would utlize a combination of public and private funding. The latest version of the New Mexico Health Security Act was introduced in our January Legislative Session, but became bogged down in committee. The text of that bill can be found here. Similar legislation has been proposed in every Legislative Session since 1993.

Matematica also estimated that the two other options studied would result in small increases in costs to the state:

... Mathematica also evaluated expanding existing public programs, such as Medicaid, to include all the uninsured, and a third approach that would have the state select a variety of private health plans from which people could buy insurance using a state-issued voucher. In that approach, lower-income people would receive state help to buy the insurance.

Expanding public programs would cost $6.3 billion, or less than 3 percent more than the existing system, Chollet said. The third approach, called New Mexico Choices, would cost an estimated $6.7 billion.

According to an Albuquerque Journal article from December of last year:

On October 19, [2006] 11 out of 19 members of Gov. Bill Richardson's Health Coverage for New Mexicans Committee, his third task force on health insurance reform, ranked the New Mexico Health Security Plan as their No. 1 choice to be included in a study that will analyze three different health care reform models and how they impact rising health care costs.

Full Report Set for June Release
As noted in a previous post, the next meeting of the Health Coverage for New Mexicans Committee will be held on from 9 AM to 5 PM on June 21 in Room 322 of the State Capitol building in Santa Fe. The complete results of Mathematica study will be released for that meeting.

For more information on this issue, including links to Mathematica study materials, visit Health Action New Mexico and its Health Care for All campaign.