Greetings New Mexico Activists:
We hope that you’re doing well in spite of our current challenges locally, nationally, and worldwide: fires fueled by climate change, a surge in mass shootings, the ongoing war in Ukraine, threats to a woman’s right to choose, just to name a few. It’s difficult to stay hopeful, but we want you to know that you are in the company of thousands of good people across our state who care and who continue to put their energy into finding solutions to these and other issues. Thank you for your compassion and determination! We have a few things to tell you about today.
If you haven’t voted yet in the primary, we encourage you to read our 2022 Endorsements page at this link for some insights and suggestions. You may also want to read our May 27 blog, “The Long and Winding Trail of Campaign Funding in NM,” at this link to learn about some of the out-of-state money influences on our election. And we hope you’ll read about Attorney General candidate Raúl Torrez’s plan for criminal justice system reform in our state in our May 28 blog at this link. There was a lot of disingenuous information circulating about Torrez early in the AG race, so we hope you’ll learn more about him before you cast your vote. Retake is endorsing Raúl Torrez for Attorney General.
At our next Zoom Huddle, on Weds., June 8, 6 to 7:30 p.m., we’ll do a quick overview of the June 7 primary results before we move to a discussion of community wealth building and community resilience as a new approach to economic development, using examples from the Democracy Collaborative’s excellent publication, Cities Building Community Wealth, which you can find at this link. We hope you’ll eventually find the time to read Cities Building Community Wealth, but in the meantime you can read a summary of some of those projects in the second half of our May 20, 2022 blog post at this link. You’ll learn about municipally owned utilities in Austin, Texas, and Burlington, Vermont; urban revitalization in Cleveland, Ohio; locally owned worker cooperatives in Minneapolis, Oakland, and Rochester, NY. We’ll talk about how strategies and projects in those cities could be adapted and replicated in our own state. We hope to see you there! To participate, please register at this link.
Our July Huddle on Weds., July 13, 6 to 7:30 p.m., will focus on gun violence prevention in our state and what we can do as advocates to support meaningful, successful legislation in the 2023 Legislative Session. We’ll be joined by Co-President of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, Miranda Viscoli. More on that as the time approaches, but if you want to register now please do so at this link.
There are several Legislative Interim Committee meetings coming up in the next few weeks, and you can find a list of those at this link. Most Interim Committees are just getting started and are still in the scheduling phase, but the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) meeting, June 15-17 in Gallup, has a jam-packed agenda that includes a full morning’s discussion of Hydrogen Hub development in our state. You’ll find the agenda at this link. I wrote to the LFC secretary Sharon Boylan about public participation and this is her reply: “Yes, the public is welcome to attend LFC’s interim meetings. The public may attend in person or view the meeting via webcast. LFC does not plan to zoom this year. If you would like to address the committee, either to give remarks or present, you need to make a formal request to the chair and cc the director. You may email your request to David.Abbey@nmlegis.gov. If you have written comments, please email it to lfc@nmlegis.gov.”
Finally, we encourage you to read Tuesday’s blog about Public Banking at this link. A state public bank could be the catalyst for so many transformational projects in our state. Please support the efforts of the grassroots group Alliance for Local Economic Prosperity (AFLEP), and consider donating to their years-long effort to establish a Public Bank in New Mexico.
Three AFLEP donors have agreed to match up to $25,000 in donations during the month of June, and to further incentivize you, Retake will match the first $1,000 donations from our supporters. If you donate $100, Retake will match that $100, creating a $200 donation to be matched by AFLEP donors. So a $100 donation, matched twice becomes a $400 donation, a $250 donation becomes $1,000 donation, etc. Read more and donate to AFLEP at this link. Once you’ve made your donation, email us at RetakeResponse@gmail.com and let us know how much you’ve donated and we will match it dollar for dollar.That’s all for now. Please send your thoughts and suggestions to retakeresponse@gmail.com. We love hearing from you!
In Hope & Solidarity,
Roxanne and Paul