Democracy for New Mexico

Higher Pay for Teachers Better Investment than Charters

From Judy Binder:
Response to Albuquerque Journal OP ED, “School Choice Helps Low-Income Families” by Micha Gisser and Sarah Hunt, January 6, 2005 (A slightly different version of this appeared in the Albuquerque Journal.)

Economist Micha Gisser, whose research generally covers agricultural economics, water rights and industrial organization, and Sarah Hunt, a UNM graduate in political science, have taken an assault on public education based on results gathered from the 2003 Terra Nova tests. Unfortunately, there is no data on how many children were tested, what subject matter was covered, or that their results might have been compared with other states that use the Terra Nova. Did a thorough analysis of their research show such startling results that all schools and all districts in New Mexico are hopeless? It is no great secret that students from minority or low economic neighborhoods do poorly on standardized tests; these tests are already culturally skewed, and testing results can be controlled.

The authors have analyzed the testing and cite “At least one study of the Milwaukee school choice program demonstrates that when compared to demographically similar students who remain in the public schools, low-income students show measurable gains in scholastic achievement after merely three years in a choice school.”

However, the results of the Milwaukee schools have been found by others to be lacking in scope and subject to interpretation.

The authors further suggest that to correct the imbalance in local test scores, brought on by residence in low-income neighborhoods, New Mexico ought to consider a school choice program.

This is a rather simplistic approach to a significantly complicated problem. In New Mexico, school choice within the public school system is an option for every student. It is called open enrollment. Unfortunately, school choice is unknown to many low-income families because some parents have not understood that this service is available and others are unable to read the documentation sent home. Having inquired from several classrooms of students in grades four through eight of the reading material found in their homes, we learned that most families, especially in low-income neighborhoods, did not subscribe to newspapers. However, children who have received vouchers are enrolled in private schools because their families—usually middle or upper class—are focused on academic success and have made the effort. Other parents may prefer their children to be safely educated close to home because a sibling or neighbor offers companionship. And others may feel self-conscious traveling into distant neighborhoods. In addition, studies have shown that the pressing need is for more qualified and better paid teachers. It is also important to note that parents and taxpayers would have to share the burden of supporting two school systems, public and private.

As an economist, Dr. Gisser has equated students, teachers, and administrators with widgets, assembly lines, and auto-ejection. If a widget is flawed, it is tossed on the trash heap. When a child comes through the system safe and sound, we bestow a diploma; those children who cannot make progress must still find a place in society.

Widgets, like dollars, have no feelings, no emotions, and no need for special attention. In APS we have 87,000 students and 10,000 teachers and administrative personnel, each of whom deserves proper compensation and respect.

From an educational forum co-sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust and Georgetown University, Stanford Professor of Education and Economics Martin Carnoy, argues that “close examination of several existing voucher programs in the United States and abroad reveals that the academic gains for struggling students and schools are marginal at best, and often simply non-existent.

In addition, more and more data reveal that children educated in charter schools "do no better in math and reading than their peers at regular public schools...” (Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, Albuquerque Journal, Dec. 2004).

In conclusion, Gisser and Hunt lack the necessary background and research data to be able to come to the conclusion that poor kids would be better served by private schools.

What has actually happened? “A Nation at Risk,” published in 1983, indicated that “education is the major foundation for the future strength of this country;” [and] “education occupied first place among 12 funding categories considered in the survey—above health care, welfare, and military defense and that survey respondents ranked education first among categories including health care, defense and welfare.

Sadly most politicians only pay lip service toward improving education. We believe that it is economically productive to make teachers’ salaries commensurate with those of business leaders and other professionals in order to keep smart, dedicated, and powerful teachers in the classroom. Students who receive a first-class education will earn higher salaries. It is likely that we will need their contributions to support us all in our old age.

Judith Binder, Substitute Teacher, Albuquerque Public Schools
Julia Rosa Lopez-Emslie, Professor Emerita of Education, ENMU

ACTION ALERT: NM Voting Integrity

Email from Holly Jacobson of New Mexico Voting Integrity passed along by Sonja Elison of NM Democratic Friends:

If you are receiving this email it is because you are part of a group of people within, over 1,000 strong, who have expressed interest in the accuracy and legitimacy of our voting system and ensuring that every vote counts as intended.

The purpose of this email is to clarify and update specific actions that are working towards that goal within New Mexico. These separate but related actions include the recount effort, election reform legislation, and a lawsuit recently filed by New Mexico voters.

It is easy for these actions to be confused with each other because there is much overlap in goals and activity surrounding them. In addition to this, inaccurate statements have been made regarding the status of the individual legal actions (recount and voters’ lawsuit). This email intends to spell out where each effort stands and what can be done to help us move towards our unified goal of more transparent, accurate, and fair elections. We will also use this as an opportunity to share a sample of some of the data analysis that has been done regarding the problems with the November 2004 vote count throughout the state.

1. Re: the Voters’ Lawsuit: A lawsuit was filed on behalf of 8 New Mexico voters on January 14, 2005. The focus and primary purpose of this action is to put in place a permanent injunction against use of the voting machines that have been linked to the most alarming problems in the 2004 general election. For specific examples of some of these problems, click here. 

Named in the case as defendants are the Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and a handful of county clerks. The plaintiffs are eight voters representing three political parties – 6 democrats, 1 green, and 1 libertarian - across multiple counties throughout the state. Since the filing many of these counties have cleared their machines while others have come up with alternatives for dealing with the upcoming school board elections such as utilizing paper ballots or reserving the machines from the most problematic precincts. Whether the machines have been cleared or not, the lawsuit has enough evidence to prove that there are major problems tied to machine type vs. voter type as well as other problems with the  vote count and procedures that are detrimental to fair and accurate elections in New Mexico.

2. Re: Election Reform efforts being pursued in the state legislature: Currently many bills pertaining to election reform are being circulated throughout the state legislature. At this time, there is no single bill that would protect our vote count by requiring both a voter verified paper ballot AND robust automatic  audit/recount measures. One bill currently being worked on shows promise. If at the point it is introduced, it looks viable and appropriately comprehensive, an email will follow with specific information. 

3. Re: the Recount effort: Despite rumors to the contrary, the recount effort remains alive in the New Mexico Court of Appeals. The fact that the recount remains active continues to shed light on the problems surrounding the control of the voting process as well as the vote count itself. It is important to remember, that the value of the recount has always been about affecting change for future elections, not just finding out what happened to the last one. As there are a variety of vote count problems that include paper ballot issues, even if many of the counties do clear their paperless voting machines there is still much to discover. Again, for more information on what went wrong with the vote count, taken from public data available from the Secretary of State, click here. A small sample of this data also follows below (click to continuation page).

Easy Steps to Voice Your Opinion re; the Transparency and Accuracy of Future Elections in New Mexico:

Contact your state legislators- share data and make it known you care about this issue and expect them to take the lead on ensuring a) voter verified paper ballots. And b) robust automatic audit and recount procedures after every election.

Contact your county clerk – share data and make it known that you care about this issue and expect them to take the lead on these same reforms. To find out the name and contact info of your county clerk, click here.

Become involved. Sign up to become part of a group working towards these goals by joining this listserv. United Voters of New Mexico , Send an email to unitedvoters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Become informed. Check out the following web sites to learn more. www.helpamericarecount.org, www.votersunite.org, www.vvnm.org (Verified Voting New Mexico).  Share this email and information widely.

Keep writing letters to the editor and share a copy the below email address if you can. Your letters have sent a clear message that New Mexico voters take their rights seriously. The Secretary of State was recently quoted in the ABQ journal that she had not received any written complaint surrounding the results of the last election. We know this not to be true. It would be good to let the ABQ journal know your opinion about this. And if you can, send a copy of your letter to the email below.

Contact us at newmexicovoter@yahoo.com

(Click through to continuation page for selected data.)

Scroll down for sample county specific data

DID YOUR VOTE COUNT??

What if the answer depends on where you live or the kind of machine you voted on?

• If you voted on an electronic voting machine on Election Day, was your ballot among the one in twenty where a vote for President wasn’t recorded?

• If you live in San Miguel, Cibola, McKinley, Taos or Mora County were you among the nearly one in eleven voters on Election Day whose vote for President was not counted?

• In predominately Hispanic precincts statewide, 1 out of 16 ballots cast on Election Day did not have a vote for President counted.

• In predominately Hispanic precincts in Bernalillo County, 1 out of every 11 ballots cast on Election Day did not record a vote for President.

• Across the state, 1 in 12 ballots in predominately Native American precincts did not have a vote for President counted.

• Over 2,000 of the votes recorded for President were “phantom” votes that were not associated with anyone’s ballot.
*********************************
Below are additional examples of vote count problems from three counties. The data material is directly from the office of the Secretary of State. Many counties have severe problems with vote data that seems to target Native American and Hispanic precincts but is specifically tied to machine type. This means, that the startling statistical anomalies only occur on specific types of machines in particular precincts.

Key:
UV = Undervote - no vote was recorded but a ballot was cast
PhV= Phantom Vote – There were more votes than ballots cast. The Secretary of State has said there were no phantom votes but the data taken directly from her office and individual counties shows that there were.
ED = Election Day
EV = Early voting
AB = Absentee ballot

SANTA FE COUNTY VOTE DATA
Prepared by Ellen Theisen from Voters Unite! www.votersunite.org

General election, November 2, 2004 including early and absentee voting

Voting Stage	UV	PhV	Bush	Kerry	Ballots
Early Voting (EV)	0.65%	92	28%	71%	22,719
Election Day (ED)	4.62%	0	31%	63%	25,185
Absentee (AB)	2.36%	106	21%	76%	19,878

Note that the high UV on election day is against all reason.

— Advantage is used on election day. It prevents overvotes and warns of undervotes, so its UV rate should be lowest.

— Optech Insight is used in early voting and warns of overvotes, but not undervotes, so its UV rate should be next lowest.

— Optech 4C is used for absentees and has no method of preventing overvotes or warning of undervotes so its UV rate should be highest. In many precincts it is lower than or just as low as the Insight.

Precincts
Odd phenomena in some of the precincts on our list:

Precinct 1
Early – 5 phantom votes
ElectionDay - 6.8% UV with 450 voters; Kerry percentage decreased 4.5%
Absentee – zero UV

Precinct 6
Early – 4/13 phantom votes, phantom votes in many down ticket races as well.
ElectionDay – 14% UV
Absentee – zero UV in pres and every down-ticket race we examined. (14 ballots)

Precinct 47 
Early voting – 10 phantom votes

Precinct 48 
Early voting – 6 phantom votes

Precinct 50 
Early voting – 4 phantom votes;
Absentee – 26% UV

Precinct 51 
Absentee — 79 phantom votes

Precinct 82
Absentee — 19 phantom votes

The pattern shown in the following precincts appears in the majority of the precincts to one extent or another, and appears also in the county totals:

1) Early and Absentee have very small UV percentages.

2) Election Day has a large UV percentage; Kerry's percentage has a significant decrease and Bush's has a significant increase.

Precincts:

Precinct 8
Early Voting – 0.0% UV; Kerry 80%; Bush 20%
ElectionDay – 4.6% UV; Kerry 70.5%; Bush 24%
Absentee ——0.4% UV; Kerry 84.9%; Bush 14%

Precinct 11
Early Voting – 0.6% UV; Kerry 81%; Bush 18%
ElectionDay – 6.4% UV; Kerry 63%; Bush 29%
Absentee ——0.0% UV; Kerry 83%; Bush 16%

Precinct 14
Early Voting – 1.3% UV; Kerry 74%; Bush 25%
ElectionDay – 5.9% UV; Kerry 57%; Bush 36%
Absentee ——0.0% UV; Kerry 71%; Bush 28%

Precinct 20
Early Voting – 0.0% UV; Kerry 83%; Bush 18%
ElectionDay – 4.3% UV; Kerry 74%; Bush 21%
Absentee ——0.0% UV; Kerry 84%; Bush 15%

Precinct 21
Early Voting – 0.0% UV; Kerry 81%; Bush 18%
ElectionDay – 3.9% UV; Kerry 67%; Bush 27%
Absentee ——0.3% UV; Kerry 77%; Bush 21%

Precinct 22
Early Voting – 0.0% UV; Kerry 79%; Bush 21%
ElectionDay – 2.8% UV; Kerry 66%; Bush 29%
Absentee ——0.7% UV; Kerry 89%; Bush 10%

Precinct 23
Early Voting – 0.0% UV; Kerry 83%; Bush 18%
ElectionDay – 2.4% UV; Kerry 74%; Bush 21%
Absentee ——0.3% UV; Kerry 84%; Bush 15%

Precinct 25
Early Voting – 1.7% UV; Kerry 81%; Bush 15%
ElectionDay – 10.1% UV; Kerry 67%; Bush 23%
Absentee ——3.7% UV; Kerry 88%; Bush 8%

Precinct 32
Early Voting – 0.8% UV; Kerry 76%; Bush 22%
ElectionDay – 9.7% UV; Kerry 66%; Bush 24%
Absentee ——0.0% UV; Kerry 89%; Bush 11%

Precinct 42
Early Voting – 0.0% UV; Kerry 86%; Bush 11%
ElectionDay – 6.2% UV; Kerry 66%; Bush 27%
Absentee ——1.0% UV; Kerry 87%; Bush 12%

Note that the UV percentage is paralleled in the down-ticket races, suggested that entire ballots are lost. If ballots are being lost by the Advantage, they are ballots with votes for Kerry -- no doubt about that, since Bush's share increases in EVERY case.
*********************************
DONA ANA COUNTY VOTE DATA
Prepared by Warren Stewart

General election, November 2, 2004 including early and absentee voting

Machine types
EV (Early voting) - Optech Insight
ED (Election Day) - Sequoia AVC Advantage (push button) (push button)
AB (Absentee) - Optech Insight

County Stats
TV (Total Vote) - 2,075 undervotes (3.25%) 258 phantoms (.4%)
EV - 220 undervotes (1.10%) 28 phantoms (0.14%)
ED - 1,603 undervotes (4.48%)
AB - 252 undervotes (3.14%) 230 phantoms (2.86%)

Election Day undervote issues in most counties. 82 out of 106 were above the statewide undervote rate on Election Day. Unusual undervotes in some Early voting precincts (unusual because they were opscan.) Phantom votes in Absentee voting, especially Precinct 106.

Specific Precincts

Precinct 13 - 98% Hispanic - 67 ED undervotes (13.84%) 12 AB phantoms)
Precinct 28 - 75% Hispanic - 35 ED undervotes (11.15%)
Precinct 38 - 75% Hispanic - 43 ED undervotes (9.95%)
Precinct 59 - 60% Anglo - 95 EV undervotes (19.71%)
Precinct 60 - 85% Hispanic - 47 EV undervotes (49.47%), 15 ED undervotes (20.55%)
Precinct 65 (huge precinct) - 75% Hispanic 58 ED undervotes (8.83%)
Precinct 66 - 58% Hispanic - 26 ED undervotes (4.94%)
Precinct 69) Precinct 106 218 AB phantom votes
Precinct 999 (Overseas absentees) 207 ballots cast 0 presidential votes
*******************************************
SANDOVAL COUNTY VOTE DATA
Prepared by Warren Stewart

General election, November 2, 2004 including early and absentee voting

Sandoval uses Sequoia AVC Edge (Touchscreen DRE) for Early Voting Danaher Shouptronic (push button DRE) 1242 for Election Day. Optech 4C (opscan) machines for Early Voting and Absentee Ballots,

10 precincts have over 80% Native American populations - all had high Election Day undervote rates:

Precinct 24 - 277 ED Ballots Cast, 240 Pres Votes, 37 undervotes (13.36%)
Precinct 20 - 166 ED Ballots Cast, 145 Pres Votes, 21 undervotes (12.65%)
Precinct 26 - 190 ED Ballots Cast, 166 Pres Votes, 24 undervotes (12.63%)
Precinct 15 - 523 ED Ballots Cast, 468 Pres Votes, 55 undervotes (10.52%)
Precinct 25 - 632 ED Ballots Cast, 569 Pres Votes, 63 undervotes (9.97%)
Precinct 08 - 191 ED Ballots Cast, 172 Pres Votes, 19 undervotes (9.95%)
Precinct 14 - 141 ED Ballots Cast, 127 Pres Votes, 14 undervotes (9.93%)
Precinct 09 - 311 ED Ballots Cast, 281 Pres Votes, 30 undervotes (9.65%)
Precinct 29 - 216 ED Ballots Cast, 197 Pres Votes, 19 undervotes (8.80%)
Precinct 19 - 178 ED Ballots Cast, 168 Pres Votes, 10 undervotes (5.62%)
For a total of 2,825 ED Ballots Cast, 2533 Pres Votes, 292 undervotes (10.34%)

These same precincts in Early Vote and Absentee combined cast 1,024 Ballots, 1.022 of which recorded a vote for president (and undervote rate of 0.20%)

McSorley Introduces Bill to Create Office of Peace

From Stop the War Machine e-newsletter:
Office of Peace in New Mexico

NM Senate Bill SB 277: Senator Cisco McSorley wants to create the Office of Peace dedicated to peacemaking, justice and human rights as well as a Citizen Peace Advisory Council. There will be a director of peace appointed by the Governor with the consent of the senate. Duties are listed and $250,000 appropriation requested. 10 pages in length.

Duties include:

1. Manage the office and direct the resources and skills of the office to four areas - prevention, management and resolution of conflict; public education; policy; and public information.

2. Organize and participate in public dialogues throughout the state, providing a diplomatic method for addressing controversial issues and conflicts.

3. Analyze and build upon existing policies and program and develop new approaches for preventing, managing and resolving social conflict - including spouse abuse, child abuse and mistreatement of the elderly, school and gang violence, hate crimes, disputes between the police and community members, natural resource disputes within and between communities, disputes within and between government agencies.

4. Develop a peace education curriculum 5. Gather information on effective community peace-building activities and disseminate the information

The citizens peace advisory council will include the director and 10 appointed members for 4 year terms.

1. One member from a peace advocacy organization 2. One member from a religious or spiritual organization 3. One member from a local, county ot state law enforcement agency 4. One health professional with expertise in behavioral and public health issues 5. One member from an environmental and energy conservation organization with expertise in alternative energy use.

6. One veteran who has served in an armed conflict 7. One public school educator 8. One representative affiliated with the arts 9. One youth representative between the ages of 15 and 24 10. One member appointed by the secretary of Indian Affairs.

Questions? Contact Loralucero@aol.com

Editor's Note: You can track this bill and read it in its entirety at the linked page at the NM Legislature website. The Legislature's main webpage is located at:

https://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/

I have a permanent link to the site in the right-hand sidebar on this page, near the top. Check it out. It has a wealth of information to help you find and track bills, find out to which committees they've been assigned, which NM House and Senate districts you're in, and how to contact your state representative and senator.

ACTION ALERT: NM Election Reform

According to an article in today's Albuquerque Journal, the first House Voters and Elections Committee meeting at the NM Legislature yesterday was packed with voters demanding a paper trail for electronic voting machines. NM Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron stated that NM has a kind of paper trail that provides cumulative totals at the end of the day, but admitted the machines lack a paper receipt for voters to check if their vote was recorded correctly.

Get this (#1): Vigil-Giron said the state's 33 counties can't use the $9 million in federal dollars left for voting machine purchases to buy machines that provide individual paper receipts because none of the companies that make them have applied to her office for testing and certification according to NM law.

Given the urgent need for machines with paper trails, you'd think it would enter Vigil-Giron's mind to contact the companies, wouldn't you? After all, she does seem to have a special relationship with ES&S machines, whose vice president was her 6th largest campaign contributor in 2002. (See previous DFNM post.) Just by chance, ES&S was showing off its machine with paper receipts at the Roundhouse rotunda yesterday. Perhaps she should have walked over and talked to them.

Vigil-Giron also answered questions from committee members about possible vote fraud in the last election. Get this (#2): She claimed she "has not seen a single complaint come to her in writing, nor has she heard from the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Mexico, which created a task force to look into such allegations." She said, "So far we have not seen anything written down."

I wonder if she considers the court actions and suits, or the reports submitted by the Green and Libertarian Parties that documented myriad problems with the election to be "anything written down." Guess not.

It should be noted that Vigil-Giron is president of the National Association of Secretaries of State and that Denise Lamb, NM's election bureau director, heads the National Association of State Election Directors. So they have alot of clout in how their counterparts around the country will deal with election reform issues. It's incredibly important that they understand how many of us are demanding that voters have access to machines with paper trails and receipts so that we can, once again, trust our election process.

Click to the continuation page for related contact information.

To contact Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron:
Office of the New Mexico Secretary of State
State Capitol North Annex, Suite 300
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87503
Phone: (505) 827-3600
FAX: (505) 827-3634
Toll Free 1-800-477-3632
secstate@state.nm.us

To contact Election Bureau chief, Denise Lamb:
(505) 827-8403
denise.lamb@state.nm.us

To contact your legislators about voting reform issues:
https://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/default.asp

Membership, contact and meeting information about the House Voters and Elections committee:
https://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/committeedetail.asp?CommCode=HVEC

The website of Verified Voting New Mexico is a good resource on this issue.

Support Equality (In 90 Seconds or Less)

From Equality New Mexico: Please Read, Click, and Forward

https://EqNM.org/pledge.htm

Same-sex couples in New Mexico deserve equality! If you agree, click here to sign EQNM?s Equality Pledge:

https://EqNM.org/pledge.htm

I pledge to learn the positions of my State Senator and State Representative on issues of full equal rights for LGBT citizens in New Mexico.

As you read this, ideological conservatives in Santa Fe are working to ban same-sex marriage with legislation that defines marriage as "only between one man and one woman." This so-called "Defense of Marriage" (DOMA) legislation will harm thousands of children across the state. In other states, similar language was used as a springboard for legislation to remove children from households with same-sex parents. We must stop DOMA in New Mexico now.

Governor Richardson says he will sign a DOMA into law if it reaches his desk. Supporters of equality and fairness need to show their strength to the Governor. You can do that by adding your name to the Equality Pledge.

The collected names will be delivered to the Governor to encourage him to do the right thing. Help persuade him with an impressive number of names--let your friends know about this effort.

Forward this email to supporters of equality and fairness.

Please sign the pledge to get informed and stay informed. In return, Equality New Mexico pledges to keep you informed. .https://EqNM.org/pledge.htm

Please Read, Click, and Forward

ACTION ALERT: Attend DPNM's ABQ Precinct Activation Meeting!

Democratic Party
Precinct Activation Meeting!!

Learn how YOU can get involved
in your precinct and ward

Everyone Welcome
Bring a Sack Lunch-Coffee Provided

IBEW Hall
4921 Alexander Blvd NE
Saturday, February 5, 2005
11:00 AM

Contact Terri Holland
DPNM  Headquarters
830-3650 x11

Editor's Note: All DFA-DFNM members and other progressives are urged to attend this meeting so we can get as many people as we can involved at the precinct level, and running for ward and precinct chairs at the March 3rd Democratic ward/precinct meetings around Albuquerque. This hands-on meeting will teach you how.

Equality NM Legislative Update

The 60-day, 2005, New Mexico State Legislative Session began at noon on January 18th and ends on March the 19th. Equality New Mexico will track Domestic Partner and HIV/AIDS legislation. To find your bills and where they are in the legislative process, proceed to https://legis.state.nm.us.

Thus far only one bill has dropped, it is House Bill 86 (H 86). H 86 is a "Domestic Partner Bill" and is sponsored by House Representative Mimi Stewart. This bill requires that insurance companies offer domestic partner benefits to any New Mexican employer who requests the benefits. Currently, most large employers usually do not have trouble with domestic partner benefits but smaller employers with fewer employees often are told that the insurance company does not provide that benefit. This bill passed the House 2 years ago but died in the Senate due to lack of time. You can track this bill  here.

No legislation for HIV/AIDS has been dropped. No Defense of Marriage Acts or DOMAs have been introduced.

A bill sponsored by Senator John Grubesic will be introduced for New Mexico State employees who have retired. In 2003, Governor Bill Richardson signed an executive order creating domestic partnerships for New Mexico State employees, regardless of sexual orientation. The New Mexico State insurance companies are denying benefits to partners of retired state employees. This bill will clarify that domestic partnership benefits apply to retirement.

A domestic partnership bill will be introduced by Senator Cisco McSorley. It will be a comprehensive, statewide, domestic partnership, benefits bill for unmarried couples regardless of sexual orientation. This bill will offer many of the rights, benefits, and protections that legally recognized families enjoy today.

Gregg Ferran, Executive Director
Equality New Mexico

Editor's Note: If you'd like to urge your legislator to support these bills or any others, go to https://legis.state.nm.us, as noted above. This site includes links for finding your legislator and their contact information, the legislative leadership, a bill finder, watcher and locator, legislative reports, committee membership, agendas, calendars and more.

ACTION ALERT: Fight BLM's Move to Allow Drilling on NM's Otero Mesa

Photo courtesy of Stephen Capra. Click for larger image.

On Monday, the Bureau of Land Management approved a drilling plan for Otero Mesa, one of North America's remaining natural Chihuahuan desert grasslands, and an ecological gem. The plan would allow exploratory gas and oil drilling on virtually all of the Mesa. Only 124,000 acres of the roughly 2 million-acres would be permanently protected. According to an AP article,

Gov. Bill Richardson and environmentalists, including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Denver-based Earthjustice, promised a court battle.

"The state is going to fight this with everything we've got," Richardson said.

The opponents argue the plan fails to consider the effect on groundwater and grassland at the mesa, extending about 40 miles north of the Texas-New Mexico line.

Richardson –- who once called the mesa "sacred" and wanted to set aside 640,000 acres as a national conservation area –- accused the federal government of ignoring its policy of working with states on major land management decisions.

"By failing to compromise, the federal government might have taken two steps backward, tying this issue up for years," the Democratic governor said.
[. . .]
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and New Mexico Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons applauded the plan, saying the BLM balanced the need to protect the environment with the need to develop new sources of oil and gas.

Stephen Capra of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance acknowledged there were novel parts to the BLM plan, but declared: "The protection the BLM is talking about, it's window dressing."

"These are some of the last unfragmented desert grasslands anywhere in the world and they're just essential to protection of numerous desert species, from the pronghorn antelope to the endangered Aplomado falcon," said Mike Harris, an attorney with Denver-based Earthjustice.

To find out more about Otero Mesa and how you can help, visit the websites of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and the Coalition for Otero Mesa. The Coalition is also organizing a Protect Our Public Lands Rally at Albuquerque's Kimo Theater on February 5th from 2:00 to 5:00 PM to raise awareness and funds to fight the BLM plan.

Special guest speakers will include: Gloria Flora, activist and former Forest Service employee; Poet Jimmy Santiago Baca; Terri Swearingen, activist and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize; Gwich'in activists from the Arctic; Martha Marks, President of Republicans for Environmental Protection; Pojoaque Pueblo dancers, and some Surprise Guests! Plus a musical performance by : "Holy Water and Whiskey. "

Call Nathan Newcomer at 505/843-8696 for more information.

First Defend Democracy Meeting Set for Sunday in ABQ

Albuquerque's DEFEND DEMOCRACY will be having it's first monthly meeting.

The meeting will begin at 7:00 PM Sunday, January 30th at Irysh Mac's Coffee House (behind the McDonald's on the corner of Central and Yale).

Don't worry about being unprepared. Just bring yourself, your ideas and the same passion you brought with you to the counter-inauguration rally. We will bring up research, eccumenical outreach, highschool movements, lobbying and direct action.  We need your input. If you don't believe that change is possible ... I ask you not to come. Or NO ... DO come. You will witness the beginnings of change. Bring any supporters with you if you would like.

Sincerely,
Jesus Celso Munoz
505-977-8428 - Cell
jesusmunoz_abq@yahoo.com

Albuquerque's "I Am Blue" Counter-Inaugural Packed With Activists

From Tom Solomon:
Thursday's Counter-Inaugural held in Albuquerque’s La Posada hotel was a huge success! A fantastic turnout packed the banquet hall and spilled out into the hallways outside. Several hundred 'pissed-off voters' and other activists networked with dozens of activist groups who had tables set up to explain their group’s theme.

We had speeches by the head of the local ACLU on Bush’s upcoming attacks on Constitutional freedoms, the editor of Crosswinds weekly on the freedom of the press, the head of the NM Wilderness Alliance (www.NMWild.org) on protecting Otero Mesa, a local attorney explaining the scam behind ‘tort reform’ (or the “wrongdoer’s don’t pay” law!) and several others. The activist groups got dozens of people to sign up to support their causes, and several groups spoke of the urgent need for activists to take back the Democratic Party.

Good music, good food and great energy lifted our spirits in the face of the inauguration of the Great Buffoon in Washington. Kathy Economy deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom for putting on this Counter-Inaugural event! (she can have Tenet's). Thanks Kathy!

(Click on photos to get larger images.)

Would anyone else like to add their impressions of this event? Click on "Comments."