Bernalillo County Democratic Party
Thoughts from Chairman Sam
On Saturday, I was honored to give the keynote address to the State YD Convention, here in Albuquerque. Nothing is more exciting than seeing Young Democrats at work, showing their excitement and passion for the Democratic Party. These young men and women are our future leaders, not only for New Mexico but for the nation.
The Democratic Party supports affordable options to help with student loans, like the law President Obama signed in 2010 that allows students to lower their rates to 10% of their income, which caps student loan repayments. The Affordable Care Act eliminated pre-existing conditions for minors and allows the option to stay on a parent or guardian’s health plan until the age of 26. More choices, more options, more freedom while making plans for the future.
DPNM endorses all efforts to defeat voter suppression--the Republican war on voting. Photo ID bills passed by Republican legislatures and signed by Republican Governors have one goal—prevent youth, seniors and minorities from exercising their constitutional right to vote. Our party supports full inclusion for EVERYONE, excluding NO ONE.
We need, want and support YD energy, passion and involvement in all aspects of the state Democratic Party. DPNM is ready for Young Democrats to help us BUILD THE FUTURE.
NEW LOOK, NEW FEEL
Hope you like our new logo! DPNM Facebook and Twitter sites have incorporated this logo already and it will be on the website soon. Look for more changes in the coming months. We’re just getting started!
ALERT: Bernalillo County Republicans Resort to Childish Humor and Sexism During Minimum Wage Debate
ALERT: Last night at the Bernalillo County Commission Meeting, County Commissioners voted 3-2 to raise Minimum Wage for working people.
It was a great win for all Bernalillo County residents, that was until the Republicans realized they were defeated and resorted to childish humor and sexism to trivialize the hard-working organizers who were there advocating for progress.
This is why just 22% of Americans are even willing to self-identify as Republicans. The Republican Party is out of touch, living in a different era, and every time they open their mouths they lose another chunk of mainstream America.
Check out what the Bernalillo County Republicans were tweetting and facebooking about when they realized they lost ( Attachment )
Please forward if you think this is disgraceful and they should apologize for their remarks.
Duke City Crime Rises 5%
"RJ Berry promised Albuquerque he would make our streets safer and he has failed.
The crime rate, which takes population growth into account, was also up — from 5,771 per 100,000 in 2011 to 6,048 per 100,000 in 2012.
It was the second consecutive year that major crimes rose in the city, after a decrease in the number of crimes reported in 2010."
STATEMENT: ABQ 50% Measure Passes With Strong Support
That's right -- current election law allows for a mere 40% of voters to select our Mayor and City Councilors, well not after tonight. The voters have spoken and the 50% measure passed with strong support..
47 Bills Head To Gov Martinez's Desk
As 47 bills head to Governor Martinez's desk, Democratic legislative leadership has blazed a path forward for our state.
Dems speak out against city clerk
Two city councilors, a mayoral candidate and a former lieutenant governor — all Democrats — met with reporters this morning to slam City Clerk Amy Bailey’s handling of the special-election underway in Albuquerque.
The criticism came after Bailey on Tuesday announced that she won’t count any ballots returned to her office without the voter’s signature, even if the person shows up later to sign it. She based her decision on a city ordinance that prohibits her from making any “arrangements for voters to sign unsigned ballots after they have been returned to the city.”
Some of this morning’s speakers said Bailey ought to count every ballot, even if it’s unsigned, because she bears some responsibility for confusion over what the requirements are. Others said she should, at the least, not turn people away who show up to sign their ballot after realizing they failed or refused to do so before mailing it in.
“It’s been clear there’s some confusion,” Councilor Isaac Benton said during the news conference. “What we need is to accommodate people who walk in and say I want to vote.”
Councilor Rey Garduno urged Bailey to count every vote, even unsigned ballots, because of the “multiple confusing messages” from her office about the voting procedures.
Federal law requires “one person, one vote,” he said, not “one person decides who votes.”
Former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish accused the city of advocating “voter suppression.”
The city clerk is appointed by the mayor, with confirmation from the City Council.
“These things don’t happen by coincidence,” Denish said of Bailey’s decision on ballot signatures. “… My message to Mayor Berry is, Let the people vote.”
Mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli, a former city councilor, said the ballot instructions to voters are “totally inadequate.”
“We need to count the votes — each and every one of them,” he said.
I’ll seek comment from the the mayor and Bailey and update this post when I can.
RJ Berry Appointed City Clerk Actively Seeking to Rig Election for Boss Berry
Albuquerque, NM - After weeks of allowing voters who forgot to sign their ballots before mailing them to come in and correct their error, Republican Albuquerque City Clerk Amy Bailey announced today that she would actively work to block those voters from casting legal ballots in the city special election.
Below is Statement from DPNM Chairman Javier Gonzales, on Mayor Berry's voter suppression:
“Despite nothing in the city law that says she can’t allow voters to come in and fix their ballots, Amy Bailey decided today – seemingly out of the blue – to actively work to disenfranchise Albuquerque voters seeking to cast a legal ballot. These things don’t happen by coincidence. Mayor RJ Berry knows full well that he can’t win a majority of voters in this city, so he’s ordering his flacks at the City Clerk to help him rig the election.
“The more voters they can disenfranchise, the more likely they are to defeat an initiative that has seen strong support from voters in every corner of the city. This is textbook Republican voter suppression, and folks should be mad as hell that it continues to pop up in election after election.”
Here is the story on RJ Berry Appointed City Clerk Actively Seeking to Suppress the Vote in Abq: http://www.abqjournal.
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TONIGHT: Thanks to Congressman Pearce, People of New Mexico Begin Paying a Huge Price with Sequester
Starting tonight, the people of New Mexico will begin paying a huge price for Congressman Steve Pearce choosing Tea Party extremism over compromise on balanced budget cuts and refusing to stop the sequester. Republican leaders again failed to compromise today, deciding it was more important to keep tax breaks for millionaires and Big Oil companies instead.
Democrats repeatedly offered balanced alternatives to sequester that reduced the deficit, but each time, Congressman Pearce and his radical Tea Party Congress said no.
Because Congressman Pearce failed to solve sequester, thousands will be furloughed, travelers will face longer lines at the airport, 70,000 children will lose Head Start, 7,750 customs and border protection agents could be laid off, more than 250,000 Army employees could be furloughed and 14,000 teachers and school employees could lose their jobs.
“Families in New Mexico are facing another blow to this economy that could cost 700,000 jobs, and they are outraged that Congressman Pearce made it happen – allowing a manufactured crisis to become a real one,” said Emily Bittner of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Americans expect their leaders to come to the table and work on solutions, but Congressman Pearce continues to be part of the problem – this Tea Party Republican Congress. The only people Congressman Pearce’s sequester protects are millionaires and Big Oil corporations.”
For more details on the effects of sequester, see here and here.
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RELEASE: Gov Job Has Its Perks - Martinez Approved, Helped Design $100k Taxpayer Funded Mansion Kitchen
February 26, 2013
Contact: Matt Ross (505) 263-4879
Albuquerque, NM - When it comes to priorities, here's an idea we should all be able to agree on: fully fund and equip New Mexico's halls of justice so that judges and law enforcement officials can do their jobs getting dangerous people off the streets. Or how about this: don't take $6 million dollars of direct-to-classroom funding away from schools that are already overcrowded.
But even when it comes to commonsense policies like these, Gov. Susana Martinez can find all kinds of reasons to be stingy with the state's checkbook. She based her whole campaign on railing against the symbolism of the previous Governor's expenditures - whether it was a state plane (in the 5th largest state in the nation) or the Governor's personal staff at the mansion. It wasn't that her reforms would save any meaningful money - they haven't. It was the principle!
Or so we were told. Sadly, Susana's stinginess apparently only applies to matters like education for our kids. When it comes to bankrolling her highfalutin Santa Fe lifestyle, Susana, it seems, can't resist dropping some taxpayer coin on the finer things in life.
According to this story on KRQE, Susana approved and had input on "...more than $100,000 last summer to renovate the public kitchen at the governor’s mansion in Santa Fe, according to officials and purchase orders. And while the upgrades included new countertops, floors and appliances, the project also included a $2,700 built-in, state-of-the-art coffeemaker..."
As Stuart Ingle (R) said, "Hope it makes damn good coffee."
As Dick Knipfing said, "That's a lot of money for any kitchen."
As Governor Susana Martinez said, "It was OK with me whatever they did..."
The most outrageous part of this story? Once KRQE caught on to the Governor's private slush fund, Susana put the spin machine in high gear. According to the story, "After KRQE News 13 began asking questions about the coffeemaker, a governor’s office spokesperson said private donors would now be asked to pay for the appliance, rather than taxpayers."
"So in other words, until she got caught, Susana had no problem whatsoever with using our money to renovate the kitchen at her place at the same time she was taking money away from our schools and law enforcement officials," said Scott Forrester, Executive Director of the Democratic Party of New Mexico.
Forrester added, "Promise one thing, get folks to vote for you, do another. It's a formula that Susana seems all too comfortable with. Maybe being Governor really changes a person. Maybe the power just went to her head. Or, maybe, she never meant a word she said on the campaign trail. Either way, New Mexicans get to have their say next November and they aren't likely to forget the Governor's hypocrisy. After all, it's not the amount, it's the principle."
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- Attracting more jobs to the state is high on her agenda but Ms. Martinez was proud to let go the two personal chefs who had been working at the Governor’s Mansion while Mr. Richardson lived there. Asked who prepares meals these days, she put up her hand. (In her State of the State address in January, she received laughs by saying of her husband, Chuck Franco, a longtime law enforcement officer, “The first gentleman will just have to help out with the cooking.”) - NY TIMES - "New Mexico Governor Rushes to Undo the Agenda of Her Predecessor" - Aug 29, 2011
- "Tax dollars should not be wasted on a stable of chefs at the governor's residence," Martinez said in a statement. "This is a prime example of wasteful spending that exists in state government." - Abq Journal -
" Governor's Private Chefs Are Toast" - Jan 5, 2011
MARTINEZ: Appointments. Exactly. And Governor Richardson had grown the number of exempt employees by over 340. I have it down to I think 212 at this time. I got rid of the two chefs that were assigned to the residence. We sold the jet that Governor Richardson had purchased. We sold the jet in addition to four other planes. We cut the exempt employees. No one was going to earn more than $125,000 for cabinet secretary. And we were going to cut back on salaries significantly. I mean, we went through the budget tooth and nail, from cell phones and takehome cars. And I put a moratorium on the purchase of brand-new cars for two years. I mean, we went through it in a way that had never been done before. We balanced it, and we got a surplus." - Greta Van Susteren Interview: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/
on-the-record/2012/12/04/new- mexico-gov-susana-martinez- future-gop#ixzz2M20v4H6i
Luján: New Report Reinforces Need to Prevent Sequester
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 25, 2013
www.lujan.house.gov
Luján: New Report Reinforces Need to Prevent Sequester
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District highlighted a new report that was released by the Obama Administration that reinforces the need to prevent the sequester’s indiscriminate cuts from taking place. The cuts are scheduled to begin on Friday, and threaten to harm the economy and result in significant job losses in New Mexico and around the country. The sequester was part of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which Luján voted against.
“From education to public safety, the sequester’s arbitrary cuts will hurt our economy at a time when too many New Mexicans are already struggling to get by,” Congressman Luján said. “This new report further outlines the impact these arbitrary cuts will have on our state and reinforces the need for Congress to come together and find a compromise on a balanced approach to prevent these damaging cuts.”
According to the White House report, the sequester will impact New Mexico by cutting:
- · $6.1 million in education funding, including putting 80 teacher and aide jobs at risk,
- · $4.4 million in special education funding for about 50 teachers, aides, and staff,
- · Head Start and Early Head Start services, eliminating access to early education for approximately 500 children,
- · $1.2 million in environmental funding to ensure clean air and water along with $877,000 in grants to protect fish and wildlife,
- · $135,000 in Justice Assistance Grants that support law enforcement, crime prevention, and drug treatment and enforcement, and
- · $257,000 in funding for job search assistance and training to help people find work.
In addition, approximately 7,000 civilian Department of Defense employees across the state would be furloughed, reducing gross pay by approximately $42 million. The threat of sequestration has already impacted the national labs in New Mexico, as Los Alamos National Laboratory took steps in 2012 to control spending in the face of budget uncertainties this year. Additional furloughs at the lab remain a possibility if the sequester occurs.
“It is disappointing that with the clock ticking, Republican leaders recessed the House last week instead of staying in Washington and getting to work,” Luján added. “I am hopeful that with the House returning this week, my Republican colleagues who have started to think the sequester is a good idea, will have had – as I did – conversations with constituents who will be impacted by these cuts. Their voices and their stories, on top of this latest report, should make it clear that we must find a better way forward.”
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