Democracy for New Mexico

(Updated) HB9-Domestic Partner Bill Passes NM Senate Public Affairs

Packed Senate Public Affairs committee room

UPDATE 1/31/08: Note new time for hearing Friday 2/1/08 in Senate Judiciary Committee - 2:00 PM.

From EQNM:
The Domestic Partnership Rights and Responsibilities Act (HB9) passed the NM Senate Public Affairs Committee by a party line vote of 5-4. The opposition has mobilized and is showing up in large numbers. Today's committee hearing was the first where opposition attempted to pack the hearing room. Today five State Senators kept the fight for fairness alive. Senator Mary Jane Garcia explained her vote as a matter of respecting all people, values that were bestowed upon her by her religious parents.

Voting for Equality

• Senator Mary Jane Garcia (D-Dona Ana 36)
• Senator Dede Feldman (D-Albuquerque 13)
• Senator David Ulibarri (D-Grants 30)
• Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque 12)
• Senator Howie Morales (D-Silver City 28)

Voting Against Equality

• Senator Steve Komadina (R-Corrales 9)
• Senator Kernan (R-Hobbs 42)
• Senator Stuart Ingle (R-Portales 27)
• Senator Steven Neville (R-Aztec 2)

Senate Judiciary on Friday
It is likely that HB9 will be heard in Senate Judiciary on Friday at 2:00 PM evening. We need supporters to turn up in large numbers to demonstrate the support behind this fight for fairness. More details to come.

Continue reading "(Updated) HB9-Domestic Partner Bill Passes NM Senate Public Affairs"

Retired Four Star General Tony McPeak to Stump for Obama in NM

Retired four-star General Tony McPeak will appear at events in Albuquerque and Las Cruces on Wednesday, January 30, on behalf of the Obama campaign. General McPeak served for 35 years in the US military, and he was the Joint Chief of Staff for the Air Force during the Gulf War. According to the NM campaign:

General McPeak’s endorsement of Barack speaks volumes about the confidence senior military advisors have in Barack due to his thoughtful opposition to the Iraq War and his deep desire to engage in increased diplomacy. "Barack has the ability not only to turn the page in Iraq," Gen. McPeak said, "he will forever transform the way we are viewed by the rest of the world."

Click for more info:

• Town Hall Event in Albuquerque with General McPeak
• Foreign Policy Discussion in Las Cruces with General McPeak

(Updated) Latest on Prez Candidate Visits to NM

UPDATE 1/31/08: The start time for the Bill Clinton rally at UNM's Johnson Center has been changed to 2:00 PM.
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Clinton Campaign
According to the Clinton campaign website, Bill Clinton will host a Solutions for America rally supporting Hillary's campaign at UNM's Johnson Center in Albuquerque on Thursday, January 31, 2008 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM 2:00 to 4:00 PM. If you plan to attend you should RSVP here or call (877) 447-2408. KNME will reportedly be streaming the rally live online. Bill Clinton will also be attending a big dollar fundraiser in Santa Fe Thursday morning. If you've got a spare $2300, Beth and Steven Moise would love to have you.

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are also rumored to be visiting the state before the February 5th Dem Caucus, but no details have been released.

Obama Campaign
Barack Obama is expected to visit both Albuquerque and Santa Fe this Friday, February 1st, but the only details released so far are about carpooling Friday to Santa Fe on Obama New Mexico site. Sen. Ted Kennedy will also be stumping for Obama in New Mexico. According to this article on a WaPo blog about the Clinton and Obama camps courting Gov. Bill Richardson for his endorsement, Sen. Kennedy may visit Northern New Mexico as early as Wednesday night.

Battle of the Endorsements (Updated)
Obama's campaign held events today at the Santa Fe Roundhouse and in Las Cruces and announced additional local endorsements:

Continue reading "(Updated) Latest on Prez Candidate Visits to NM"

Blah Blah Tax Cuts, Blah Blah Fear, Blah Blah Surge

We've got ours!

That's what I got out of Bush's final State of the Union address last night. Between his smirking recitation of the inevitable laundry list of Repub wet dreams and the emptyness of his vision, it was hard to watch the TV screen. Witnessing the bored silver-spoon elitist lie and fingerpoint his way through another performance for the cameras was bad enough. Having to endure all those gutteral cheers from his side of the chamber, all the robotic jumping up and clapping, all the foaming at the mouth connected to his entry and exit, all the phony baloney pomp and circumstance was enough to make a grown woman retch. Were these the people's representatives or the pseudo-uppercrust paying tribute to a hot-house potentate? Did you see Rep. Chris Shays give Bush a kiss?

You'd never guess the straits we're in by watching our la-dee-dah President, a reptilian Cheney and a bunch of right-wing ideologues all vigorously practicing self adulation in public. I half-expected chants of "We're number one" or "USA, USA" to break out at any moment. They are so far removed from the suffering masses, the crumbling infrastructure, the self-immolating health care system, the leaking schools, the empty blocks of houses, the gas pumps and furnaces sucking up money, the pressures of getting and keeping a real job. The dead, dying and maimed in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Nigeria are mere abstractions. Whenever I view this annual spectacle I can't help imagining that many of the attendees are sitting there thinking, "I've got mine, and the hell with you." What can I say? State of the Union speeches bring out the worst in me.

But enough about my reactions. Here are some responses to the speech from local politicos:

Continue reading "Blah Blah Tax Cuts, Blah Blah Fear, Blah Blah Surge"

Ask Your Legislators to Sign the Voters First Pledge

As you probably know by now, many of our New Mexico legislators haven't exactly rushed to jump on the clean elections bandwagon. Like last year, there's an abundance of foot dragging and a pile of excuses on the part of lawmakers in Santa Fe regarding expanding voluntary public campaign financing beyond appellate judge and PRC contests.

I guess too many of our state reps and senators like the thrill of collecting big sums of money from the vested special interests that bring their business onto the House and Senate floors for passage. What fun would it be to serve the people's interests and have to forego all those cash advances for legislation to please the donors? I know that a great many of our lawmakers are honest, but it's time to make it easier for good candidates to run against the bad eggs who are beholden to all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons.

Common Cause New Mexico has come up with way to try and prod the lawmakers who are supposed to represent us into taking a public stand on public financing. By clicking here you can ask your state legislators to take the (pdf). It asks them to pledge to put voters first and work to pass and enforce legislation for full voluntary public campaign financing for statewide offices, extending the legislation already in place for New Mexico appellate court judge races and the Public Regulation Commission.

Continue reading "Ask Your Legislators to Sign the Voters First Pledge"

NM Heath Care Reform: Tuesday House Committee Hearing

From Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign: The NM House Health and Government Affairs Committee is meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, at 8:00 AM in Room 309 to make decisions and take action on the three health bills the committee heard last week: Rep. Picraux's Health Care Authority bill (HB147), the Health Security Act (HB214) and the Governor's Health Solutions bill (HB62). Amendments are expected on the Health Solutions bill.

There will not be public testimony on these bills, since the committee heard from the public last week. However, please come to listen to the committee's debate on these three very different proposals. It's always good to have a lot of people at the committee hearings!

Continue reading "NM Heath Care Reform: Tuesday House Committee Hearing"

ACTION ALERT: HB9-Domestic Partner Bill in NM Senate Public Affairs Tomorrow

From EQNM:
The Domestic Partnership Rights and Responsibilities Act (HB9) will be heard in its first Senate committee on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 2:00 PM in Room 321 at the Round House in Santa Fe. The bill passed last week in the NM House by a margin of 33-31. The support behind HB9 has been tremendous, but we must keep it going. New Mexico Families need and deserve these legal protections. Testimony will be extremely limited on this side. It is important to focus any statements on why Domestic Partnership is important to you. We still need to show how much support this piece of legislation still has. Your attendance is important now more than ever! If you are able attend this hearing in the Senate Public Affairs Committee please call 505.224.2766.

Guest Blog: PRC Candidate Jason Marks

This is a guest blog by Democrat Jason Marks, who's currently Chairman of the Public Regulation Commission. Jason is running for reelection to a second four-year term on the PRC from District 1 in the Albuquerque area, and using public campaign funding to do so. See below the fold to learn how you can help keep a clean election (and clean energy) advocate on the PRC.

“We have the best government money can buy.” 

In unguarded moments, elected officials have been heard to acknowledge that large campaign contributions buy “access,” but in no event -  no how, no way - does a contribution ever buy a vote or official decision.  Yet, outcomes we see from our political system seem impossible to explain aside from money and campaign contributions exerting a disproportionate and undue influence.

I learned this first-hand in 2005, in my first month on the PRC when Qwest “introduced” a bill in the Legislature to end its obligation to put $2 million/year into a fund supporting rural phone line extensions, thereby increasing the company’s profits by that same amount.  This fund had been created in the late 1980s as an alternative to a $2 million Qwest rate decrease.  After examining the issue, I agreed with Qwest that it no longer made sense to put an additional $2 million/year into this fund, but disagreed that Qwest was entitled to put the money into its own pocket - it was originally ratepayer money and the only fair solution was to tie the termination of Qwest’s annual funding obligation to a rate decrease.   I screwed up my courage and argued this before one Legislative committee after another, only to see Qwest’s bill pass through each. 

Unlike many business vs. consumer debates where lawmakers can justify their support of the business side by saying a new regulation “will cost jobs” or “deny consumers choice,” this Qwest bill had no other side - it was $2 million of unjustified profit for Qwest at the expense of  $2 million for ratepayers.  Using some political chits in the House, we were able to force an amendment so that Qwest would only get half the ratepayer money.  This version passed both houses and would have become law except for a Governor’s veto (there’s a story in that, too).  With that lucky break, later that year, I was able to push through a docket at the PRC dealt with the issue fairly:  Qwest $2 million/yr funding requirement was ended in exchange for a permanent 19 cent/month decrease in all New Mexico phone rates.

As my example shows, in matters with low visibility to the public, the interests of constituents and voters can wind up under-represented at the expense of making big-dollar contributors happy.  Fortunately, thanks to activists for ethical government in Arizona, Maine, and elsewhere, we now have an alternative model for financing political campaigns that cuts out the distorting influence of money for a few offices.   New Mexico’s publicly financed election law substitutes a measured amount of publicly-provided campaign financing for qualifying candidates in exchange for their pledge not to seek or accept private contributions beyond a limited amount of “seed money.”   Today, public campaign financing is available at the state level only for Public Regulation Commission and appellate judicial (Supreme Court and Court of Appeal) races.   At least two candidates ran for PRC in 2006 using public financing, but neither was successful.   But here in Albuquerque, a version of this system was used successfully by progressive candidates in the last city council election!!!

Continue reading "Guest Blog: PRC Candidate Jason Marks"

(Updated) Three Kennedys Endorse Obama

UPDATE: Add them to the list: Author Toni Morrison and 60's activist Tom Hayden endorsed Obama.
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There was another time, when another young candidate was running for President and challenging America to cross a New Frontier. He faced public criticism from the preceding Democratic President, who was widely respected in the party. Harry Truman said we needed “someone with greater experience”—and added: “May I urge you to be patient.” And John Kennedy replied: “The world is changing. The old ways will not do…It is time for a new generation of leadership.” So it is with Barack Obama. He has lit a spark of hope amid the fierce urgency of now. -- Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsing Obama

So I’m asking for your hands. I’m asking for your help. And I’m asking for your hearts. And if you will stand with me in the days to come - if you will stand for change so that our children have the same chance that somebody gave us; if you’ll stand to keep the American dream alive for those who still hunger for opportunity and thirst for justice; if you're ready to stop settling for what the cynics tell you you must accept, and finally reach for what you know is possible, then we will win these primaries, we will win this election, we will change the course of history, and light a new torch for change in this country – and “the glow from that fire can truly light the world."  -- Barack Obama, accepting the Kennedy endorsements, January 28, 2008, at American University in Washington

Text and video clips of the endorsement speeches of Caroline Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy, and acceptance speech by Barack Obama here.

Continue reading "(Updated) Three Kennedys Endorse Obama"

(Updated) Dem Prez Campaigns Focus on New Mexico

Standing for Change in the Land of Enchantment

Lots of rumors and incomplete data are circulating about possible visits to New Mexico this week by Dem presidential candidates or their surrogates ahead of our February 5th caucus.

Barack Obama
The only semi-confirmed event so far is an appearance by Barack Obama in Santa Fe on Friday that appears on an event notice here for car pooling from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. Obama may also appear at an event in Albuquerque. Word is that Sen. Ted Kennedy, who's officially endorsing Obama today, will visit New Mexico on behalf of the campaign later this week. Keep checking the Obama New Mexico page, where you can also sign up to volunteer and receive emails.

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican,

Obama also will receive "a slew of new endorsements" from black, American Indian and other political leaders during a Tuesday news conference at the state Capitol, Fitzgibbon said. On the same day, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima and other mayors and state representatives from Southern New Mexico plan to endorse Obama at a news conference in Las Cruces, he said.

Continue reading "(Updated) Dem Prez Campaigns Focus on New Mexico"