Rep. Lujan has now endorsed 3 of the 8 People’s Platform bills while Rep. Lujan Grisham remains at 2. Retake has been in ongoing dialog (Read: constant pressure) to co-sponsor more of these bills. Time for you to let them know we mean it.

Events & Opportunities.  Click here for more information on each of the events below.

Sunday Oct 29, 3-5:15pm. Norman Lear Documentary and Community Conversation.  $5 Screening of two documentaries, one on gentrification and another on water, will be followed by a community conversation focused on these issues in Santa Fe.

Kingian Non Violence Training Friday and Saturday 9-6pm. $75. Learn NV practices from those who organized MLK, Jr.’s Civil Rights movement in the 60s.

Thursday Nov. 2, 6-8pm, 1420 Cerrillos. Retake’s Local Action Team.  The Local Research Activism Team has changed course. Research on local issues will be done independent of meetings, so if you are a researcher who wants to investigate models for public transit, affordable housing, public banking, preventing gentrification, police oversight and other city issues, write to volunteer4retake@gmail.com. However a group of the team is going to focus on direct, group action.  As Retake works to engage with and serve communities in the whole of Santa Fe beyond our immediate neighborhoods, we have established an Action Team to identify and implement projects that are located in what are often under-served areas. The initial project will focus on positively impacting Santa Fe’s open spaces such as a park or community garden. After the completion of this first project and its assessment, the team will consider future project ideas.” If you are interested in participating in planning and implementing a group volunteer action, please come on Thursday to this kick-off meeting.

Time for Our Representatives to Hear From You

Retake realizes that none of the People’s Platform bills will be passed in the current Congress, but we lobbied during the 2016 Roundhouse session to get progressive bills passed, knowing that our Governor would veto any worthwhile bill put on her desk. Passing progressive bills was important in 2016 as it showed where our Democrats stood and where they were waffling. And we were disappointed in how many good bills died in Committee during the 2016 Roundhouse Session, just as we are disappointed that despite ongoing pressure, two self-identified progressive legislators can’t seem to co-sponsor more of the 8 landmark bills included in the People’s Platform. This post links to analysis of where our elected officials stand with some commentary about what I have gleaned from conversations with both Rep. Lujan and Lujan Grisham and more recent communication with two of their key legislative aides.  The post will also include a link to contact information that will enable you to raise your voice with both legislators. Even if you live in Districts 2 or 3 and hence Rep. Lujan Grisham is not your elected Representative, feel free to contact her and remind her that you will be voting in the Gubernatorial primary in June and the general in November and you are paying attention to this, as well as her new Jumpstart NM platform, discussed below.

First the People’s Platform and Where Lujan Grisham and Lujan Stand

First, I want to acknowledge that aides for both Lujan and Lujan Grisham have been very responsive. Conversations with them have been ongoing and productive. When those conversations began, Rep. Lujan had only co-sponsored one of the eight People’s Platform bills and now he is endorsing three. While Rep. Lujan Grisham had been co-sponsoring two and remains stuck on just two, our conversations have clarified some of her reservations.

The People’s Platform

Right now, the status quo and caution in politics isn’t working. Millions of people lack health insurance, cannot afford to pay for college, and cannot make ends meet on starvation wages. In the land of the free, we incarcerate more people than any other country in the world, and our addiction to fossil fuel has caused the planet to warm at a calamitous rate and puts our very future at risk. The People’s Platform is comprised of 8 bills that have all been introduced in Congress. Our Revolution, Progressive Democrats of America and Working Families Party are collaborating to lobby Representatives in Congress to co-sponsor these bills and have created a website with a scorecard detailing how every Democratic Representative Stands in relation to these bills. As of October 25, NM Democratic Representative, Cong. Lujan Grisham has endorsed but two of these bills and Cong. Lujan has now endorsed three with the third just announced in a text to me yesterday afternoon–co-sponsorship of the automatic voter registration bill.

• Congressperson Lujan Grisham has co-sponsored the Equal Access to Abortion bill and the Automatic Voter Registration Bill
• Congressman Lujan has sponsored the $15 minimum wage bill, the College for All Act and now the Automatic Voter Registration bill.
• Only 36 of 198 Democratic Congressional Representatives have co-sponsored fewer than 25% of the bills, i.e. only 18% of the Democrats in Congress have been less supportive of these eight bills than Gubernatorial candidate and Rep. Lujan Grisham.
• While gratified with Rep. Lujan’s now co-sponsoring three of the bills, he enjoys an entirely safe seat in Congress and with a position of leadership in the Party, ought to be able to be more bold in advancing progressive legislation.
• Our push is to get Rep. Lujan Grisham to co-sponsor the $15 minimum wage bill and the College For All Act, both co-sponsored by Rep. Lujan. And we also want to press Rep. Lujan to sponsor the Equal Access to Abortion Bill endorsed by Rep. Lujan Grisham. If we achieved this, both Representatives would be endorsing half the bills, significant movement from when they sponsored but 25% and 14% of the bills.

It is time to hold our elected officials accountable.  Click here to go to a detailed analysis of the eight bills and the positions held by both of our Democratic House Representatives and recommended language about which bills to pressure each Representative. At the end of the page you will find contact information for each representative so you can provide respectful encouragement to endorse these bills and specific information about the bills to push with each of our representatives. This is an important action. My conversations with their aides have contributed in a small way to some of the movement described above, but it will be far more effective if they hear from a large number of their constituents.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

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