Affirmative Action Committee
Mission Statement for DPNM Affirmative Action Committee
"The mission of the Affirmative Action Committee is to assure that all registered Democrats in the State of New Mexico are adequately represented and treated equally within the Rules of the Democrat Party and the Laws of the State of New Mexico."
STATEMENT: Governor Vetoes Perfectly Fair and Legal Maps
For Immediate Release Contact: Scott Forrester
October 7, 2011 505-934-5691
Albuquerque, NM - Today Susana Martinez vetoed fair, legal maps drawn by democratically elected representatives of the people. The last time Republican Governor Gary Johnson vetoed the maps that were passed by a majority of democratically elected legislators it cost NM taxpayers $3.6 million.
Below is a statement from DPNM Chairman Javier Gonzales:
"It should come as no surprise to New Mexicans that Susana Martinez is playing politics, as she has continued to do so over her first 9 months in office. Ultimately her continued political games will be corrected by the courts as they've done at least four times before. Democrats will take their fight to court where they will fight for "One person, One Vote," and ensure all minorities’ voters’ rights are protected.
Democrat legislators refused to rig the next decade of elections in Republicans favor, and that's not what Susana Martinez wanted, so now she is sending us into an unnecessary court battle costing taxpayers millions of dollars. New Mexicans have larger issues to devote their attention then Susana's usual political games like jobs, education, and healthcare.
Make no mistake, with this veto, Susana Martinez is sending fair and legal maps, and drawn by democratically elected representatives of the people to court and wasting taxpayers millions of dollars."
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RELEASE: DPNM calls on Gov. Martinez to save taxpayers money and sign the bills
DPNM calls on Gov. Martinez to sign redistricting bills
Maps are fair and equal - save taxpayers money
For Immediate Release Contact: Scott Forrester
September 25, 2011 505-934-5681
Albuquerque, NM – Yesterday, the 2011 special session of the New Mexico legislature adjourned and Governor Martinez was sent a series of fair redistricting bills that protect New Mexicans’ voting rights and ensure equal representation.
Below is a statement from DPNM Chairman Javier Gonzales:
"Democrats worked diligently for 18 days to ensure fair and equal districts and protect the voting rights of all New Mexicans. I have no doubt that these maps meet every legal requirement of redistricting. They will hold up in court, so there is no reason - outside of pure partisanship - for Gov. Martinez to veto these bills. By vetoing them, she will waste millions of taxpayer dollars and months of time and energy on a senseless court battle—just because she wants to rig the game for her Republican party.
It's time to sign these bills and begin tackling the task of getting New Mexicans back to work."
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Editorial: Secretary of State Does A Disappointing 180
That’s your Secretary of State’s Office at work. And that’s cold comfort to voters who promoted Dianna Duran to statewide office last year from her Senate seat representing Otero and Doña Ana counties. They believed Duran’s campaign pledge that she would use her 30 years of election work experience to clean up operations in the scandal-plagued office, to make it accountable, to deliver New Mexicans an electoral process they could believe in. Duran has surely heard the well-worn phrase “seeing is believing.” And seeing her office redact line after line after line in letter after letter in her investigation of irregularities in voter files does not position her in the eyes of the public as the champion of transparency she claimed to be while campaigning. Duran has also surely heard the well-worn phrase “practice what you preach.” Unfortunately, her Republican Party, which sued Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration for claiming “executive privilege” as a defense to complying with the state’s public records law, is now embracing Duran doing the same thing. Duran’s office claims releasing the information now “will compromise the Secretary of State’s decision-making process.” She says she will release some of it after her investigation is complete. That’s not executive privilege; that’s situational censorship. Sarah Welsh, the executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, rightly points out that executive privilege was never set up as a temporary measure to keep information from the public, and it “was never intended to pull a shade over the decision-making process of every government official, at every level. When it’s exercised that way, the public loses any meaningful ability to see what our government is doing and why.” Voters elected Duran to deliver an election process they could believe in. To gauge her progress so far, all they can do is read between her pages and pages of redacted lines. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. Read more: ABQJournal Online » Editorial: Secretary of State Does A Disappointing 180 http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/07/17/opinion/secretary-of-state-does-a-disappointing-180.html#ixzz1SNSMIlim
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ICYMI: Democrats question scope of review
Democrats question scope of review
By Milan Simonich Santa Fe Bureau
Posted: 06/19/2011 10:24:32 PM MDT
Las Cruces Sun News URL: http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_18313019
SANTA FE - Democrats on a legislative committee made Secretary of State Dianna Duran the butt of jokes and criticism Friday, saying she had mishandled an investigation into voter fraud.
Duran, a Republican, has forwarded 64,000 voter records to state police so its investigators can help determine whether any laws were broken.
Those under investigation account for about 5 percent of New Mexico's 1.16 million registered voters.
State Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, told fellow members of the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee that the massive scope of Duran's investigation shocked him. He questioned her logic and her tactics.
"I sure don't think this is a public-safety issue," McSorley said of Duran's decision to involve police.
He said New Mexico's 33 county clerks, who supervise elections, were "more than capable" of helping Duran determine if any election laws were violated.
Most of all, McSorley said, Duran's decision to call on police to review 64,000 records was a bad use of valuable resources.
"I cannot remember one documented case of voter fraud," he said.
Neither could anybody else on the committee.
Duran, in an earlier interview, said she felt obligated to turn over to police the cases that she considered "questionable" or that needed "further review."
Her staff began checking voter records in March. At that juncture, Duran told state legislators that she had suspicions about 37 voters.
Red flags were raised, she said, when her staff compared voter registration rolls to the state driver's license records of foreign nationals. Illegal immigrants can obtain a New Mexico driver's license, but cannot vote because they are not U.S. citizens.
But the so-called foreign national database includes many people who indeed are U.S. citizens. Years ago, they may have obtained their driver's licenses with passports rather than Social Security cards, so they landed in the foreign database.
Duran would not say how her investigation had ballooned from 37 cases to tens of thousands, but legislators said they think they know.
State Rep. Antonio Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said small variations of voters' names or initials probably would explain almost all 64,000 cases.
Maestas even predicted that he was on Duran's list of suspicious voters. The reason, he said, was that he had generally stopped using his given first name of Antonio in favor of his nickname of "Moe" Maestas.
State Sen. Clint Harden, R-Clovis, agreed that many voters' names vary slightly from one piece of identification to another. To demonstrate his point, Harden pulled out his driver's license, concealed-carry permit, credit card and voter identification card. Some identify him as a "junior" but others do not, he said.
Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Do a Ana, said Duran's maneuver reminded her of a voter investigation that targeted Democrats during the administration of former Republican governor Gary Johnson.
"It got laughed out of court," Garcia said.
McSorley suggested that the committee might want to call Duran and Gorden Eden, secretary of the Department of Public Safety, to shed light on why they handled the cases this way.
One Republican on the 17-member committee, Rep. Thomas Anderson of Albuquerque, publicly supported Duran for launching the investigation.
"The secretary of state was handed a problem that wasn't of her making," he said of apparent discrepancies in voter identifications. "We should not criticize her for that part of her effort."
If the investigation finds fraud in even 1 percent of the cases, that would be substantial wrongdoing involving 640 people, Anderson said.
Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, a Republican, spent more than a year looking into voter fraud allegations in New Mexico. In the end, Iglesias said, he had not a single case to prosecute.
Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or 505-820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com.
Heinrich Touts Tribal Law and Order Act Becoming Law
WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Representative Martin Heinrich (NM-1) released the following photo and statement after attending the bill signing ceremony for The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 at the White House. Rep. Heinrich is a cosponsor of the legislation that gives American Indian tribes more authority to combat crime on their reservations. The legislation was passed by Congress last week and signed into law by President Obama earlier today. "This law will make our Native communities safer by giving law enforcement on tribal lands the resources and authority they need to prosecute and fight crime more effectively. The signing of this bill marks a step forward in public safety on reservations and nearby communities. Today, we sent a clear message that sexual assault and other crimes, far too common on tribal land, will no longer go unnoticed due to lack of resources." PHOTO: U.S. Representative Martin Heinrich pictured with U.S. Department of Interior Solicitor Hilary Tompkins at the signing ceremony for The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 at the White House on July 29, 2010. (Click here for more photos. To request a high-resolution photo, please email whitney.potter@mail.house.gov.) # # #