A blog replete with actions. PNM’s SB 47 hearing today at 9am, People’s rally and SJR 1 Early Childhood funding initiative on Monday and an important call to write NMDP leadership to advance party reform via the Unity Commission recommendations. Lord, it is high gear time and we need you.
Roundhouse Update
Recreational Marijuana Advances. One a 4-3 vote along party lines, the Rules Committee. Mary Kay Papen was the sold Dem. to vote against the bill. Sponsor Ortiz y Pino acknowledges that there are not the votes needed to be approved by the full Legislature.
Crime Bill (a pretty good one) Passes House. The bill doubles sentences for violent offenses involving a firearm, eliminates the possibility of jail time for an array of petty offenses and increases jail-based behavioral health services (hurrah).
Saturday, Feb 3, 9am Roundhouse Senate Chambers. Sb 47 Hearing. We’ve sent out daily descriptions of this bill but if missed them, click here. If you’ve read them I am hoping you are motivated to get to the Roundhouse today at 9. This is a very big deal and it is critically important that we show up in force. If you want to testify, I recommend arriving at 8:30 to sign up. Click here if somehow you missed the analysis of how offensive this bill is and why you need to show up and speak up.
Funding for Early Childhood
Background: HJR 1 would allow New Mexico voters to decide to spend an additional 1.5 percent of the state’s $18 billion permanent school fund on early childhood care and education programs like home visiting, child care assistance, and pre-kindergarten. These programs have been proven to help in the critical brain development that takes place in the first five years of life. The circuitry that is built during the first five years are the foundation for learning and aid in becoming a successful and contributing member of society.
Action Needed: HJR 1 is scheduled to go to the full House for debate and a vote on Monday, Feb. 5. It must pass the House vote before it can go on to the Senate. Please call your state representative at their Capitol office and urge them to support HJR 1.
What You Might Say: We will never make strides improving child well-being in New Mexico until we expand our investments in our youngest children. High-quality care and education programs that serve children between birth and age five are the best investments we can make in our children, our future workforce, and our economy. Please support HJR 1. Thank you.
Contact Info: Office numbers for all members of the House of Representatives are available here. This page includes a search feature if you’re not sure who represents you in the state House.
Poor People’s Campaign Santa Fe Capitol Building (Roundhouse). East side of the building. Monday, February 5, 2018, 10:00 AM
Join the New Mexico Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival on February 5th at 10am for our Unity News Conference. New Mexico will join with over 25 states around the country and Washington DC to announce our participation in 40 days of moral action to launch the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival this Spring. On February 5th, we will stand united with folks across the country at state capitols and in Washington, DC highlighting the human impact of policies which promote systemic racism, poverty, the war economy and environmental devastation.
Fifty years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King called for a Poor People’s Campaign to begin a “revolution of values” in America. We are reigniting these efforts to unite the poor, disenfranchised, and marginalized to transform our nation’s political, economic and moral structures of our society. Join us February 5th! and Please invite your friends and family to join as well.
New Mexico Registered Democrats: Urge Our Democratic National Committee Members to Support and Vote For ALL RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE UNITY REFORM COMMISSION
As tomorrow’s blog will make very clear, if we are ever going to create a justice-based economy, we need to stop organizing our election processes around placating the wealthy and their corporations. Advancing the Unity Reform Commission’s goals is one step in that direction. The DNC’s Unity Reform Commission has now issued its report with recommendations which push the Democratic Party in a democratic direction. Imagine that. The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) has about five more months to review and determine whether to adopt all recommendations. The Commission recommendations call for reducing the number of notoriously undemocratic superdelegates to the national convention from 712 to about 300, a step toward full democracy within the party.
The Commission recommendations call for open primaries and caucuses, same-day registration, and more transparent, fair, and accountable leadership at the helm of the DNC, including improved transparency for DNC contracts with high-paid consultants and vendors. All recommendations were arrived at through painstaking compromise between the Sanders supporters and the Clinton supporters on the Commission. Yet, some members of the RBC are working to separate out recommendations to vote down or to dilute.
Reach out to the DNC members of our state to commit to all the recommendations and not allow the RBC to chop them up. Taking our issues to the DNC now is our best chance to bring to fruition our work from 2016 and 2017, and democratize our party And when you reach out to them, emphasize that there a goodly number of NM Democrats who are done with centrist polices and corporate-determined Party structures and practices. Tell them that if they do not advance a more inclusive, small d democratic process, then expect to be replaced. Enough is enough and, again as our next blog will demonstrate, their tired polices and political approaches simply do not meet the needs of the majority and inspire no one.
Email to:
- Richard Ellenberg, richard@nmdemocrats.org
- Neomi Parra-Martinez, neomi@nmdemocrats.org
- Joni Gutierrez, jonig@zianet.com
- Ray Sanchez, rgsanchez@smdlegal.com
- Suggested language for email to DNC members:
I am a registered Democrat in New Mexico, and I urge you to make a public commitment to support and vote for ALL of the recommendations of the Unity Reform Commission. I further urge you to tell all members of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee to accept all recommendations, as a whole, in order to move the Democratic Party toward broader participation and transparency. Do not allow them to be diminished or diluted. The recommendations as a whole encourage greater involvement in the Democratic Party by all sectors of society, which the party needs for policy changes, to elect Democratic candidates in New Mexico, and to change the course of this country.
If you are a New Mexico State Central Committee member, please indicate that in your signature to your email.
Thank you,
for more information on the Unity Reform:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/12/11/battle-democratic-party-after-unity-reform-commission
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20986:Will-DNC-Rules-Committee-Widen-Clinton-Sanders-Rift
TOMORROW, I hope. I am not sure how I will pull this off, Roxanne and I have a full day retreat in ABQ for the Progressive Caucus of the Democratic Party State Central Committee, so there is precious little time to work on a blog. But I have been working with a remarkable 56 page Intercept report on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (chaired by our own Congressman Lujan) and there is a very clear and systemic tilting of the scales in how candidates become viable. In short, if you have money or can get it, you can be against almost anything central to what are supposed to be Democratic values and the DCCC will support you and squash any progressive with grassroots support who might disrupt things. The challenge in doing this blog is that every paragraph of the Intercept report is worth sharing and most folks aren’t going to wade through 56 pages. So it has been a very tough excerpting/condensing act. But when done, this will be a blog worth mulling, discussing and sharing. Hopefully tomorrow….along with a report on on SB 47 got squashed like a bug in the Conservation Committee. The results from all five Mayors completion of our City Policy Survey will be released but perhaps not til Tuesday. Busy, busy.
In solidarity,
Paul & Roxanne
Categories: Personal & Collective Action
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