Democracy for New Mexico

Turnout Huge: Obama Takes Maine

Waiting in line, Maine caucus

Despite snow, cold and big winds, Maine Dems packed caucus sites yesterday and gave Obama his fifth victory of the weekend, which also included Obama wins Saturday in Washington State, Louisiana, Nebraska and the Virgin Islands. The win in Maine was something of an upset for Obama, as recent external and internal polling had shown Clinton with a significant lead. He ended up besting Clinton by a margin of 59% to 40%, or 15 delegates to her 9. Check below the fold for a list of the states so far won by each candidate, along with their winning margins. According to the a statement by Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe:

Obama has now won 20 contests to Clinton’s 11; he’s won a larger share of the popular vote; and he’s projected to more than triple his current pledged delegate lead since Super Tuesday from 27 pledged delegates to 84, a net gain of 57 pledged delegates. This weekend’s net gain of 57 pledged delegates represents more than the 42 delegate net gain that Clinton won in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tennessee and Arizona – combined.

Oh, and guess what? There were still outstanding precincts in Maine's vote totals reported today -- this in a place where Dems have been running caucuses for decades and there were 420 locations in a state that fits in one tiny corner of New Mexico. Turnout was so huge that sites in Portland, Bangor and other places across the state had lines snaking out the doors and many people were forced to stand out in the stormy weather waiting to get in.

The turnout was high at many caucus sites, despite harsh weather. Many people in Maine's 420 cities and towns were taking part in the state's delegate-selection process for the first time, driven to participate by excitement over the highly competitive race.

"If it wasn't so close I wouldn't vote," said Mark Antoine, who waited more than an hour in line at the state's largest caucus site, Portland High School, to cast his vote for Obama. Antoine, 20, said it was the first time he had participated in any election. There was no parking for several blocks around the school, and some stood in slushy snow and shivered in lines that extended around the block.

According to a story in the Portland Herald:

More than 46,000 voters, including 4,000 who cast absentee ballots, participated in the caucuses, easily breaking the record of 17,000 from 2004.

We exceeded that in a way none of us could have foreseen," said Arden Manning, executive director of Maine's Democratic Party. "Democrats really want something different, and they want something new. That's why they attended in such high numbers."

... The record voter turnout in Maine plus the bad weather led to long lines and confusion at many caucus sites about how a caucus works. The caucus at Cape Elizabeth High School started an hour behind schedule. Caucusgoers waited in two lines snaking out the door even as a wet snow started to fall shortly after 1 p.m.

Portland High School was mobbed with voters three hours before the caucus was scheduled to begin. A line of people stretched from inside the building to outside in the falling snow, with the end of the line falling on Congress Street -- three blocks from the school's Cumberland Avenue entrance. Inside, the school's athletic teams held bake sales as some voters clamored for seats inside the gymnasium and many others figured out where to register.

Continue reading "Turnout Huge: Obama Takes Maine"

Status of NM Dem Prez Caucus: Calling All Albuquerque Area Dems

Nancy Denker of Focus Ink and other vols processing provisionals

Volunteers are still needed from now until at least Tuesday to help count New Mexico Caucus provisional ballots. The task is taking place at the offices of REDW, located at 6401 Jefferson St. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109 (map), (505) 998-3200. Please call Robert Adams at (505) 975-8780 if you'd like to volunteer for a shift. 

Netroots Challenge to Democrats: The dozens of volunteers, judges and staffers who are taking shifts -- sometimes very long ones -- processing and qualifying Caucus provisional ballots at REDW for 16 hours a day can get very hungry and thirsty. Can we help keep them hydrated and fed? Are you up to the challenge? Whether you can devote some time to the provisional ballot process or not, think about bringing over a donation of fruits, veggies, cheeses, crackers, juices, soft drinks, munchies, pizza, sandwiches or whatever strikes your fancy.

If you'd like, call Robert Adams at 975-8780 to see what's needed, or just stop by with the goods. You know what they always say about Democrats -- we may not always be superbly organized but we do have a tradition of supporting one another. (Hat tip to Anni Smith for the suggestion.)

Where Do We Stand in the Count?
Yesterday the Chairman of Democratic Party of New Mexico Brian Colón announced that the Party had initiated the qualification of provisional ballots. This is the process of assuring that voters are registered and have not already cast a ballot. Earlier Saturday, the Party completed the processing of the provisional ballots, and has already completed the canvass of regular and absentee ballots. 

"Saturday, with the work of scores of volunteers, we began qualifying provisional ballots to ensure that every vote counts," said Chairman Colón. "Voters waited for hours to send a message that's its time for a change in the White House, we must work for hours and days, to make sure their vote counts. Through this qualification process, we will assure that every registered voter's ballot will be counted."

With the help of several dozen volunteers working on several shifts covering 16 hours per day, the Democratic Party of New Mexico has completed the following phases within the vote-counting and certification process:

• Established an agreement with ground rules between the two parties;
• Completed the scanning of more than 137,000 voter signatures;
• Completed the counting of more than 141,000 regular and absentee votes; and
• Processed over 17,200 provisional ballots, which is the first step before qualifying and tabulating the provisional ballots.

Continue reading "Status of NM Dem Prez Caucus: Calling All Albuquerque Area Dems"

(Updated) 2/9/08 Dem Prez Contests: LA, NE, WA, VI

Note: Volunteers are needed to help count New Mexico Caucus provisional ballots at REDW in Albuquerque. Click for more info.

UPDATE: Barack Obama increased his already formidable momentum by sweeping all four contests by large margins. Data from CNN:

Louisiana Primary
Obama:  57%,  33 delegates
Clinton:  36%,  22 delegates

Nebraska Caucuses
Obama:  68%,  16 delegates
Clinton:  32%,  8 delegates

Washington State Caucuses
Obama:  68%,  35 delegates
Clinton  32%,  15 delegates

Virgin Islands Convention
Obama:  3 delegates
Clinton:  0 delegates

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If you're interested in tracking the voting and delegate projections in the three states and one territory holding Dem presidential nominee contests today, this diary on Daily Kos features neat graphs that will update as results come in later today. (You'll have to refresh the page.) Also check out the dynamic with the data that will generate the graphs. There will also be results on CNN and MSNBC.

Louisiana has a primary, Washington State and Nebraska hold caucuses and the Virgin Islands conduct a unique territorial convention to determine the allocation of delegates to the Democratic convention this August. More info below.

Continue reading "(Updated) 2/9/08 Dem Prez Contests: LA, NE, WA, VI"

(Updated-HB9 Fails) Domestic Partnership: The Facts

UPDATE: Much of this post is now moot, for now anyway, because the Domestic Partnership Act (HB9) failed to pass in the NM Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. It was tabled by a vote of 6-4. More than 200 supporters were in attendence. Sen. Lidio Rainaldi (D-Gallup) had a major hand in killing the bill, as he did last year. Rio Arriba County legislator Sen. Richard Martinez (D-Espanola) was the other Dem defector. Funny how the concepts of "sanctity" and "Catholic morality" are only in play when crushing measures that seek to correct civil liberty travesties, but not when you're greedily grabbing taxpayer money to fund the follies of your cronies. More to come on this.
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Yesterday's New Mexico In Focus on KNME included a discussion during The Line portion of the show on New Mexico's domestic partnership act (HB9). The bill is currently held up in the NM Senate Judiciary Committee after passing the House and the Senate Public Affairs Committee. The topic is covered during the first eight and a half minutes or so of the video clip above.

As a gay person in an 18-year relationship with my partner, I found much of the discussion to be accurate and on target, but I had trouble with a couple of the ideas suggested for a fix in lieu of domestic partnership legislation. Both James Scarantino and Pat Frisch advanced the notion that all the basic civil rights delineated in the domestic partnership act could be achieved merely by having partners sign contracts of various sorts. Pat Frisch even suggested this could be done by downloading simple documents available on the web. There are serious problems with this approach.

Can Contracts Replicate Legislation?
As Margaret Montoya states, it would be impossible to contractually achieve the 100 or more rights guaranteed by marriage under state law. Even if it could be done, it would cost thousands of dollars and many hours of time to obtain basic legal rights that the rest of the citizenry gets for free if they enter into what amounts to a legal civil union, apart from any church ceremony. Is that fair?

Moreover, there are myriad real-life examples posted all over the web of people who ran into trouble during medical emergencies and similar situations. For instance, many have encountered problems if they don't have copies on their person of all the legal contracts they executed to try and obtain at least some legal protections. Even if people keep copies of such documents with them at all times, there are many examples of authorities denying their validity for proving next of kin status or other legalities in an emergency.

Continue reading "(Updated-HB9 Fails) Domestic Partnership: The Facts"

Noon Today On Insight New Mexico Progressive Talk Radio

The next installment of airs on Albuquerque's Progressive Talk Radio 1350 AM from Noon to 1:00 PM today, Saturday, February 9. Cohosted by Heather Brewer and Javier Benavidez and produced by Suzanne Prescott, the weekly show covers the latest happenings at the Legislative Session and other local political news. You can call in live during the show with your questions and comments at 338- 4090. This week's show features:

• Gene Grant fresh from the recent edition of In Focus on KNME discusses 'Gene's terrible Superbowl adventure' and Roundhouse Activity this week. Gene couldn't make it, but Matt of will provide insight on the NM Caucus and other local politics today.
• Debbie O'Malley brings us up to date on the housing crisis in ABQ and New Mexico and what we can do about it
• Coco from Cocoposts is back again with us to tell why TIDDS is actually important
• If were lucky we'll also have Elias Barelas to tell us how he has survived another week in the NM legislature and what's happening with the bills he's involved with.

NM Dem Prez Caucus: What's Happening Now

Voters at Montezuma Elementary in Albuquerque

Volunteers are needed to help count provisional ballots at RDEW in Albuquerque. Click for more info.

Attorneys for the Clinton and Obama campaigns, State Democratic Party officials, various staffers, temporary workers and volunteers are continuing to labor at the accounting firm of RDEW in Albuquerque to produce a final, official tally of the votes cast in New Mexico's February 5th Democratic Presidential Preference Caucus.

Regular paper ballots had been handcounted at the Caucus sites after voting closed on Tuesday. The results were then phoned in to Dem Party headquarters that night, where the tallies were recorded. This constituted the "unofficial count." Next the ballots had to be run through optical scan tabulators, and the results compared with the handcount totals. The signatures of those who signed in to vote at the Caucus sites are being scanned into a computer to produce a master list showing who cast a ballot. There's also a listing of the folks who voted by absentee (mail-in) ballot.

Provisional Ballot Count
Workers are expected to begin sometime today to examine more than 17,276 provisional ballots. The special ballots were used by people who a) showed up to vote but weren't on the registered voter rolls, b) were at the wrong Caucus site or c) had requested an absentee (mail-in) ballot but failed to return it and voted in person instead. The latest update of New Mexico's vote count was released yesterday morning and does not contain any provisional ballots.

Standards for Qualifying Provisional Ballots
Campaign attorneys and Dem Party officials spent the past few days negotiating standards that will be used to judge whether a provisional ballot qualifies as legitimate or must be tossed out. The standards were designed to reject only those provisionals that are obviously illegitimate -- not those that may exhibit minor errors like a missing middle initial. The aim was to be inclusive, transparent, consistent and fair.

Provisional ballot analysis will determine whether the vote was made by a registered Democrat, and whether the individual had voted previously at another Caucus site or via absentee. The Party's registered Democrat voter list has reportedly been rechecked to make sure it contains the names of all the Dems on the Secretary of State's official list. According to Kate Nash, these are the main standards released by the State Party that will govern provisional ballot qualification:

Continue reading "NM Dem Prez Caucus: What's Happening Now"

Tonight on NM IN FOCUS: NM Caucus, Domestic Partnership Debate

Tune in to KNME-TV's NEW MEXICO IN FOCUS tonight at 7:00 PM on Channel 5 (repeats Sunday at 6:30 AM). The one-hour public affairs show is co-hosted by Santa Fe Reporter staff writer David Alire Garcia and Albuquerque Journal columnist Gene Grant.

This Week’s Topics: Ballot Problems Once Again Plagued NM; What The Election Results Might Mean For The National Campaigns; Will NM Pass A Domestic Partnership Bill? -- Political Debate & Religious Controversy

This Week’s Guests: Alexis Blizman, Executive Director, Equality New Mexico; Pastor Steve Smothermon, Legacy Church in Albuquerque; Reverend Brian Taylor, Rector, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church; Rep. Gloria Vaughn, Alamogordo Republican

This Week's Panelists: Guest panelists tonight are Steve Cabiedes, Political Consultant; and Pat Frisch, Citadel Communications, AM Radio Operations Manager; who will join regular panelists Margaret Montoya, UNM School of Law / UNM School of Medicine; and Jim Scarantino, Columnist, The Weekly Alibi.

Call Speaker Lujan on Clean Elections Bill

From Steven Robert Allen, Common Cause NM:
Sadly, modern campaigns are often forced to spend much more energy on raising the boatloads of money that candidates need to compete. We’ve got a chance to change that in New Mexico with Clean Elections for statewide campaigns by passing HB 564. But we need to raise our voices. We need to let Speaker Ben Lujan know that we want his continued support for Clean Elections in New Mexico.

Please call Speaker Lujan to remind him that the Clean Elections bill, HB 564, is a critical reform: (505) 986-4782.

At this crucial point, a brief and urgent phone call from enough of us will send a strong message to the Speaker of the House. Please let us know that you made the call by reporting back to us here. Let’s keep the momentum of Super Tuesday alive by pushing for a major democratic reform—public funding of our statewide campaigns. A quick call to Speaker Lujan will go a long way to keeping Clean Elections on the move. Thanks again for your help in cleaning up New Mexico politics.

Groups Sue Los Alamos National Lab for Clean Water Act Violations

From Amigos Bravos:
On February 7th, 2008, Amigos Bravos, Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Don Gabino Andrade Community Acequia Association, Embudo Valley Environmental Monitoring Group, New Mexico Acequia Association, Partnership for Earth Spirituality, Río Grande Restoration, SouthWest Organizing Project, Gilbert Sanchez, Kathy Sanchez, and Tewa Women United filed a lawsuit against Los Alamos National Laboratory for violations of the Clean Water Act. To download the full complaint John A. Boehnerclick here.

On May 23, 2006, Amigos Bravos and its partners filed a 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue the management of Los Alamos National Laboratory for violations of the Clean Water Act.

LANL has a 63 year legacy of toxic and radionuclide discharges and dumping in the canyons below the lab, as well as over 2,000 solid waste dumps on site. Radioactive liquid wastes were unknown on the Pajarito Plateau before Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) began operations in 1943. LANL’s initial management decision was to discharge these untreated wastes into Los Alamos and Pueblo Canyons, despite warnings that such discharges would accumulate and lead to highly contaminated conditions in the canyons and, conceivably, in the Río Grande.

Continue reading "Groups Sue Los Alamos National Lab for Clean Water Act Violations"

ACTION ALERT: Last Stand on HB9-Domestic Partner Bill

HB9 was passed by the NM House this Legislative Session, as well as by the Senate Public Affairs Committee. It has been held up in the Senate Judiciary Committee while advocates try to convince Democrat -- yes, Democrat -- Lidio Rainaldi of Gallup to let it go to the Senate Floor by either voting for it or refraining from voting. So far he has refused. Many personal stories about how the bill would help NM families have been sent to Sen. Rainaldi, including a heartfelt one from me. But it appears that political pressure on him from people who believe their personal religious beliefs should trump other people's legal rights is working. Very sad that someone who calls himself a Democrat would be against civil liberties for all, isn't it? Let's hope Sen. Rainaldi comes to his senses.

From EQNM:
House Bill 9, The Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act is currently a hostage in Senate Judiciary. The Committee is deadlocked 5-5 with Senator Lidio Rainaldi voting with the Republicans and refusing to move. If we are to have any chance of bringing this bill to the floor, we must show the legislators that this bill has broad support and that we are prepared to fight. 

Senate Judiciary will meet tomorrow, Friday, February 8th to hear HB9 (The hearing will NOT be postponed). THIS WILL BE THE FINAL PUBLIC HEARING FOR HB 9.  We need every member of our community to show up and be ready to testify. The hearing is scheduled for 2:00 PM in the Senate Chambers. The opposition has been arriving early in the morning to fill the committee room. We must arrive hours early in order to get seats. We know this means many hours of waiting, but this is necessary in order to ensure that we are heard.

Continue reading "ACTION ALERT: Last Stand on HB9-Domestic Partner Bill"