Info on Jennifer Marley’s arraignment at 8am today. Plus we report on how our two Democratic House Representatives fare on the Summer of Progress’ People’s Platform, a platform comprised of 8 key progressive bills: much room for improvement here and so.the dialog begins.Jennifer Marley Faces Two Felonies for Battery on a ‘Peace’ Officer TODAY September 13 at 8:00am at Magistrate Court, 2056 Galisteo St, Santa Fe. Join us at the courthouse. Wear long pants, no shorts or tank tops. And be respectful. We don’t need a cranky judge. UPDATE: 8:45am. Jennifer Marley’s arraignment lasted less than two minutes with a large crowd of supporters on hand. Afterwards her attorney fielded questions and indicated that while police contend that the lapel video shows Jennifer appearing to swing her sign toward the police, Cron stated that there was very clearly no intent to strike or to harm and that any contact that might have occurred was a result of Marley simply twisting and turning as police surrounded her. He also indicated that the next step would be a pre-trial hearing where the prosecution and defense would present their cases to enable a determination as to whether the was probable cause to prosecute. Cron indicated that they had lots of evidence to counter police claims. Finally, Cron asked that Marley supporters NOT contact the District Attorney as that would be counter productive. More will be reported as details become available. We are hoping for all charges against Marley and others to be dropped.

Roundhouse Activism Team, Thursday, Sept 14, 6pm-8pm. 1420 Cerrillos, the Center for Progress and Justice. We will hear a report on our list of targeted GOP and Democrat legislators. From conversations with progressive lobbyists and others, these legislators have been identified as persistently blocking progressive legislation. The team will now weigh which of these legislators could be vulnerable to a challenge in the primary (Dem) or general election. We will also continue to work on our list of priority bills that will soon be posted in an online poll to obtain input from throughout the state. Click here to review our strategy, although at this meeting we may adjust it with input from you!!  Click here to RSVP on Facebook or email us at volunteer4retake@gmail.com. Subsequent meetings will be the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month.

Retake Town Hall, Saturday Sept 16, 1:30pm-3:30pm. 1420 Cerrillos. The past two weeks have been tumultuous. There is a knee-jerk urge to react, to feel that we must do something. Given the extent to which fires, floods, and climate change; protests, statues and arrests; and threatened mega-sweeps from ICE converged over the past two weeks, it felt right to bring all those issues together and to hear from experts and to talk among ourselves. But we decided that combining three huge issues into one meeting would not allow for sufficient interaction and conversation on any of the topics.Allegra Love from Santa Fe Dreamers will now be unable to attend, and we agreed that planning and conversation among community leaders might better focus a future broad community discussion on immigration.

So our leadership team came together last night and decided to alter the structure of the Town Hall on Saturday. When you arrive you will find blank sheets of butcher paper with questions asking your views on local and state issues. What are your most important issues and opportunities at local and state levels? During the meeting, we will group your responses, list them on a separate set of butcher sheets and then toward the end of the meeting provide you with colored dots so you can prioritize the issues. We will also elicit your input on how we can best continue to build a community of informed, engaged advocates. What are we doing right? What could we do better? We want your ideas about how we continue to focus our energy and organize our community.

The bulk of the meeting will be spent in conversation with Mariel Nanasi, New Energy Economy, and Scott Davis, Showing Up for Racial Justice who will share their views on the challenges and opportunities posed by threats to our climate and to our civil liberties and how those threats overlap. They will explore how communities of color and the poor have borne the brunt of climate change’s impacts and of policy decisions related to energy. They will also describe possible ways we can address the threats from climate change and racism.  The panel will be highly interactive with opportunities for participants to ask questions and make comments. We will close the meeting with a brief discussion of how the issues posted on butcher paper were prioritized and your input into how Retake can better advance the development of a strong advocacy community. Click here to RSVP on Facebook or write to volunteer4retake@gmail.com.

The Summer of Progress People’s Platform & Ratings on Reps. Lujan & Lujan Grisham

OurRevolution, Progressive Democrats of America, and Working Families Party have collaborated to develop an eight-bill platform and are advocating with Democrats in the House to co-sponsor those bills. The bills identified for the Platform are listed below with links to a fuller description of each bill.

The #PeoplesPlatform asks House Democrats to cosponsor the following bills:

1. Health Care for All: H.R. 676 Medicare For All Act, introduced by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI).  Click here for details on the bill.
2. College for All: H.R. 1880 College for All Act of 2017, introduced by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (WA-07). Click here for details on the bill.
3. Workers’ Rights: H.R.15 – Raise the Wage Act, introduced by Representatives Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Keith Ellison (D-MN). Click here for details on the bill.
4. Women’s Reproductive Rights: H.R.771 – Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017, introduced by Rep. Lee, Barbara (D-CA).  Click here for details on the bill.
5. Voting Rights: H.R.2840 – Automatic Voter Registration Act, introduced by Rep. Cicilline, David N. (D-RI). Click here for details on the bill.
6. Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: Justice is Not For Sale Act of 2017, introduced by Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Click here for details on the bill.
7. Tax on Wall Street: H.R. 1144 – Inclusive Prosperity Act, introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).  Click here for details on the bill. h
8. Environmental Justice:R. 2242 – Keep It in the Ground Act, introduced by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA). Click here for details on the bill.

Interestingly, the bill encountering the most opposition is the Environmental Justice Bill, a bill that would order the immediate cessation of all fossil fuel extraction. The three other bills enjoying less support are the Criminal Justice Reform Bill, the Wall St. regulation bill, and the Free College Tuition bill. The other four bills are supported by various Representatives about equally. A $15 minimum wage enjoys the greatest level of support, followed by Women’s Right to Reproductive Health, and Voter’s Rights.

The Summer of Progress website has assembled a scorecard that lists how each member of the House of Representatives stands in relation to these eight bills. More specifically, it identifies each member of the House and how many of the eight bills s/he has co-sponsored. From New Mexico, Representative Lujan Grisham has co-sponsored two of the eight bills (women’s reproductive rights and voting rights), for a 25% ranking and Rep. Lujan has a 13% rating for co-sponsoring just one bill ($15 Minimum wage).

• Only 11 Democratic members of Congress co-sponsor none of the eight bills.
• Only two Congressional Representatives have co-sponsored all eight bills: Barbara Lee from Oakland, CA, and Janice Schakowsky from Illinois.
• Only five Reps sponsor seven of the eight bills, including Keith Ellison.
• Twelve other Democratic Representatives co-sponsor six of the eight bills, including Tulsi Gabbard.
• Fifteen more co-sponsor 5 of the eight bills earning a 63% rating. Thus 34 of the 198 Democratic Representatives co-sponsor at least 5 of the bills.
• Forty three representatives co-sponsor half of the bills earning a 50% rating.
• Another forty-three Representatives co-sponsor at least three of the bills, earning 38% ratings. Thus 120 of 198 Democrats have endorsed at least three of the bills, with none of those representatives from New Mexico.
• Thirty-seven House Democrats, including Rep. Lujan Grisham co-sponsored two bills, leaving a total of 30 of the remaining Democrats co-sponsoring just one of the bills, Rep. Lujan among them.

From conversations with aides to Sen. Heinrich and Rep. Lujan and Lujan Grisham, I have been told that co-sponsoring a bill is not always the best measure of support and does not reflect situations like with the healthcare bill where in the case of Rep. Lujan, his not co-sponsoring the H.R. 676 is due to the bills including provisions to close the VA and Indian Health Service, collapsing both into Medicare. A bill is being developed that protects these two successful health systems. But while there are certainly going to be individual cases where a subtlety in a bill keeps an otherwise progressive Representative from co-sponsoring one or more bills, it would be heartening if our two House Representatives were co-sponsoring at least 50% of the bills. What’s more, as yesterday’s post described, Senator Heinrich had concerns about Sanders’ Single Payer bill, specifically that there was no opt-out option through which a person could maintain private coverage. Nonetheless, he agreed to co-sponsor the bill.

In short a bill does not have to be perfect to be worthy of co-sponsorship, and Retake will be having conversations with aides to Rep. Lujan and Rep. Lujan Grisham in hopes that both of NM’s Dem. House Reps can show more leadership on these key bills and co-sponsor more bills on this list. To review the full scorecard, click here.  For contact information for Rep. Lujan and Rep. Lujan Grisham, click here. And do contact them and press them on these bills.

Please sign up for the Town Hall on Saturday.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

Categories: Actions, Economic Justice, Community & Economic Development, Election, Political Reform & National Politics, Healthcare & Coverage, Social & Racial Justice & Immigration Reform

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