Democracy for New Mexico

Bill Clinton: More Rove-Republican with Each Passing Day

How any Democrat who looks at the facts can possibly still support the Clinton campaign at this point is beyond me. Dig this quote throwing another smear at Obama and his supporters:

Former President Bill Clinton was in West Virginia on his wife's behalf. In Clarksburg, he called her a scrapper and contrasted her appeal among working-class voters with the elitists he said support Obama.

"The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it's by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules," he said. "In West Virginia and Arkansas, we know that when we see it."

This from the campaign that wants to count Michigan's primary even though no other candidate, including Obama, was on the ballot. They want to count both Michigan and Florida even though Hillary and all the other Dem candidates pledged that those primaries would not count because the states DID NOT FOLLOW THE DNC RULES. They want to throw away the party's criteria for victory -- pledged delegates -- and substitute popular vote in primary states but not caucus states. This is the former president who repeatedly broke the decency rules in the White House with Monica Lewinsky.

Spare me, Bill. It's you and your wife's campaign that believe there's a different set of rules for those planning to continue a dynasty.

Technorati Tags:Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, DNC

TGIF Videos

The Empire Strikes Barack! (Watch for Gov. Richardson near the end)

Rich People, God Bless Us!

Mother Earth-Johnny Winter

One more ....

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(Updated) Tonight on NM In Focus: NM-01 Congressional Candidates

UPDATE: You can see a video of this show here (episode 135). In the first segment on the GOP candidates, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White and State Senator Joe Carraro go at each other with the gloves off. Of special interest: Carraro challenging White's record as Secretary of the Department of Public Safety under former Gov. Gary Johnson, when 89% of state police officers supported a vote of 'no confidence' against him, and accusing White of 'bad management' practices that have resulted in violent crimes rising in the county.
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Must see TV: The race to replace Heather Wilson in the U.S. House of Representatives is the hot topic on this week’s episode of “New Mexico In Focus,” airing Friday, May 2 at 7 PM and repeating on Sunday, May 4 at 6:30 AM on KNME-TV, Channel 5.

All of New Mexico’s congressional seats are open in this November’s election. But no other race in the state will be more watched locally and nationally as the race to fill Heather Wilson’s congressional district one seat, covering the Albuquerque area. This week, the candidates for that seat, Republicans Joe Carraro and Darren White, and Democrats Michelle Lujan-Grisham, Robert Pidcock, Martin Heinrich, and Rebecca Vigil-Giron join co-hose David Alire Garcia to talk about the important issues facing New Mexico and the nation.

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Election Reform Groups Endorse Two NM Dem County Clerk Candidates

Paul Stokes announced at last night's DFA-DFNM Meetup that United Voters of New Mexico and Verified Voting New Mexico had endorsed Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Valerie Espinoza for the office of County Clerk in Bernalillo and Santa Fe Counties, respectively.  Their accomplishments as the incumbents in these offices and their detailed and thorough responses to our questionnaire on current election issues fully reflect their dedication that votes be counted exactly as they are cast and that New Mexicans must have full confidence in the trustworthiness of our elections.

Maggie and Valerie have been strong supporters of the key election reforms that have been adopted in New Mexico, and they are open to further reforms that will increase confidence in our elections.  We can be proud to have these dedicated leaders as county clerks in these important counties.

United Voters of New Mexico and Verified Voting New Mexico are coalitions of organizations and individuals concerned with strengthening the accuracy, accountability and transparency of our election process.

Paul Stokes
United Voters of New Mexico

Robert Stearns
Verified Voting New Mexico

Technorati Tags:Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Valerie Espinoza, United Voters of New Mexico, Verified Voting New Mexico, Bernalillo County Clerk, Santa Fe County Clerk, Democrats, endorsements, New Mexico

Equal Voice Town Hall Set for 5/6, Santa Fe

From Health Action NM: You are invited to tell your stories to elected officials and candidates at an upcoming Equal Voice for America's Families event. Let your voice be heard on issues of: Living Wage, Clean Water, Affordable Housing, Health Care, Healthy Food, Immigration, Quality Education, Childcare.

MAY 6th EQUAL VOICES TOWN HALL
4:30-8:00 PM
EL MUSEO CULTURAL
1615 Paseo de Peralta Suite B, Santa Fe

Leadership Roswell to Host Two-Day Candidate Forum

The Leadership Roswell Alumni Association candidate forum will be held on May 5 and 6 at 6:30 PM at the First Baptist Church, 500 N. Pennsylvania Avenue in Roswell. On May 5th the 2nd CD congressional candidates will answer questions, and on May 6th the two Republican candidates in State Senate District 33 (Rod Adair vs. Rory McMinn) and State House District 57 primaries (Dan Foley vs. Dennis Kintigh), respectively, will answer questions. Candidates in other local races will also be participating.

The candidates will answer questions prepared by the forum's committee they haven't seen ahead of time, taking turns on who answers first, and be granted two minutes each to answer. According to an article about the two-day forum in the Roswell Daily Record:

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Tonight: DFA-DFNM Meetup with Maggie Toulouse Oliver

The monthly Albuquerque DFA-DFNM Meetup will be held at 7:00 PM tonight, May 1, 2008, at the Social Hall of the First Unitarian Church on the SW corner of Carlisle and Comanche. Click to RSVP or join the group and get on the email list.

The keynote speaker will be Bernalillo County Clerk MAGGIE TOULOUSE OLIVER, who'll be discussing how her office is preparing for the June 3rd primary election, answering questions about voting and vote counting, and suggesting ways we can help make the election run smoothly. Following up will be an open discussion about local voting and election issues led by PAUL STOKES of United Voters New Mexico and BILL KASS, a Democratic ward chair in Bernalillo County. As always, there'll be plenty of conversation, information and visits from a candidate or two.

Technorati Tags:Albuquerque, New Mexico, DFA-DFNM Meetup, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, elections, voting, Bernalillo County, Bernalillo County Clerk

(Updated) NM Clinton Camp Challenges Election of Laurie Weahkee as Unpledged Add-On Delegate

John Wertheim (second from left) and Mark Fleisher (far right)
complaining about add-on delegate election at SCC Meeting last Saturday

UPDATE: Click for a copy of the letter (pdf) submitted to Chairman Brian Colón by John Wertheim and nine other members of the DPNM Executive Committee regarding the process used to elect New Mexico's unpledged add-on delegate to the DNC Convention.
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As I reported previously, the Clinton camp in New Mexico raised a ruckus over the way Democratic Party of New Mexico Chair Brian Colón handled Saturday's election of the unpledged add-on delegate to the Dem National Convention. When Colón nominated two Native American women who hadn't endorsed either of the presidential candidates, former DPNM Chair John Wertheim and Clinton delegate Mark Fleisher led a rowdy effort to make an additional nomination from the floor, claiming Colon wasn't following the Party's Delegate Selection Plan.

The Clinton camp's attempt was eventually ruled out of order, and Laurie Weahkee was elected by the Party's State Central Committee to fill the NM delegation's last unpledged slot. Weahkee has said repeatedly that she hasn't yet made up her mind whether she will support Clinton or Obama for the presidential nomination.

Now Wertheim and others have submitted a letter to Colón complaining that he didn't follow the rules. The Clinton camp is saying there should be a run-off election for the slot between Weahkee and Heather Townsend, who received write-in votes from Clinton supporters on the SC-- despite the fact that she wasn't an official nominee. Townsend is an acknowledged Clinton supporter. According to an article in today's Albuquerque Journal:

In a letter this week to state Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón, 10 ranking party members— including four Clinton superdelegates— accused Colón of breaking the delegate selection rules. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, another Clinton superdelegate, told the Journal that she thinks Barack Obama backers put "tremendous" pressure on Colón about the selection plan.

"I don't think the governor personally would have done it," Denish said of Gov. Bill Richardson, who has endorsed Obama. "But people associated with him would have worked very hard at that on his behalf."

Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley said Wednesday that no governor's associates put the heat on Colón, adding that Richardson played no role in the outcome of Saturday's election. Colón said Wednesday that backers of both Obama and Clinton were pressuring him heavily before his nomination of the 12th superdelegate, Laurie Weahkee, who has said she is still uncommitted to either Clinton or Obama. Colón added that the party broke no rules in the selection process, which led to Weahkee's election.

"The Clintons are fighting for every single delegate, and the Obamas are fighting for every single delegate," Colón said. "At the end of the day, what I did was follow the rules."

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When Will It End if McCain Has His Way?

Attacks on U.S. troops over the past two days killed six soldiers, the U.S. military said Wednesday, pushing the military's death toll in Iraq for April to 48, the highest for a single month since September. Fierce fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City fuelled the bloodshed in April, with at least 1,073 people killed across Iraq and the US military's toll hitting a seven-month high. According to data collected by the interior, health and defense ministries and made available to AFP, 966 civilians were killed in April, as were 69 police officers and 38 soldiers. Read more. Visit the site Iraq Coalition Casualtiesicasualties.org for statistics on troops wounded and killed.

Technorati Tags:Iraq, MoveOn, political ads, mission accomplished, George Bush, McCain

26 Defective Groundwater Monitoring Wells Discovered at Sandia Labs

From Citizen Action:
Citizen Action, a public interest group, has obtained a list of 26 groundwater monitoring wells throughout Sandia National Laboratories that require plugging and abandonment with installation of replacement wells. The list was obtained by Citizen Action after making a public records request to the New Mexico Environment Department. 

Citizen Action and Robert H. Gilkeson, a ground water expert and geological scientist formerly employed by Los Alamos National Laboratories as lead consultant, filed complaints with the Department of Energy, the Environment Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the wells installed at Cold War-era waste sites located at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, are not in compliance with federal and state regulations. Following the complaints of Citizen Action and Gilkeson, NMED has produced a report that describes the need for the replacement of wells at waste sites such as the Mixed Waste Landfill, the Chemical Waste Landfill, the Tijeras Arroyo groundwater and Technical Area V. The NMED report identifies the problems with the existing monitoring wells to include:

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