Advocating for the most vulnerable in Valencia County
Approximately twenty-four miles south of Albuquerque, Los Lunas, the Valencia County seat, has significantly fewer services and resources for children and caregivers then Albuquerque. Yet it has individuals, agencies and law enforcement doing what they can to help all children in the community. With one of the highest rates of substantiated child abuse and neglect in New Mexico, Valencia does not have the level of child specific services necessary to respond adequately. Relying on access to services and resources in Albuquerque is difficult, expensive, and can add to stress for law enforcement and others, as well as trauma for the children they are trying to serve.
The 2012 rate of substantiated child abuse for Valencia County was a distressing 28 children per 1,000 compared to the State's rate of 11.4, Bernalillo’s 8.8 and Sandoval’s 7.5...
Gary King: Too nice to win?
In 2002, Gary King made his first run for governor. In the Democratic Party’s preprimary convention, he garnered a bit over 19 percent of the vote, just shy of the 20 percent he needed for an automatic place on the ballot. His failure was due to a typically scorched-earth campaign by Bill Richardson to garner massive support at the convention and prevent any opponent form getting easy access to the Democratic primary ballot for governor.
Twelve years later, King proved he had learned the lesson of that bitter experience. Again running for governor, he didn’t count on support from this year’s preprimary convention, and he didn’t get it...
Susanuh’s Reading Scores
When Susanuh first took office, her reading scores absolutely sucked, but the voters liked her, so through this weird social promotion program called the vote, she assumed the mantle of governor.
Over the past four years, I’m weepingly proud to say, Susanuh has renounced social promotion, and she is now ready to read even the hardest words. She could read the names of each one of her potential challengers emblazoned across five grainy black and white pictures of Pirate Bill Richardson that appeared in her primary TV ad. That was no sweat for Susanuh...
Five Questions with New Mexico Authors – Dede Feldman
This week we asked former state senator and author Dede Feldman some questions about her 16 years in the Senate, the future of New Mexico politics, and about her new book Inside the New Mexico Senate: Boots, Suits, and Citizens from UNM Press, 2014.
NMM: So many people love this book, the Mercury included, we wondered if you had any new insights away from the job into the essential method and madness of the New Mexico Legislature?...
Response to open primary piece
The flowing exchange of emails between Fred Nathan and me transpired as a consequence of a column I wrote last week about the ways the political parties control the political process and disenfranchise many voters, especially by excluding independents from the primaries...
Searching for today’s “Salt of the Earth”
We all know that Hollywood has made a number of films in New Mexico. But one film that gained the kind of notoriety that chambers of commerce don’t appreciate, was Salt of the Earth, an independent film produced by Paul Jarrico and directed by Herbert Biberman, released sixty years ago on March 14, 1954.
The film was shot in Bayard and Silver City and the script depicts an actual strike against the Empire Zinc Mine in Grant County in 1950. Many miners were recruited to play themselves in the film...
DOJ announces start of negotiations with ABQ Mayor Berry
US Attorney for New Mexico Damon Martinez told a group of community members Monday night that the community outreach portion of their process is coming to an end. The Department of Justice (DOJ) will present a portion of a draft consent decree to the mayor this week to begin negotiations - possibly as early as Wednesday. Martinez said that his team wants to reach an agreement with the City on the stipulations contained in the 45 page report in order to avoid filing a law suit regarding the conduct of Albuquerque Police Department. Martinez said, “The negotiations will go on as long as they are productive"...
The VA Scandal
When former Senator majority leader and Presidential candidate Bob Dole said that it was time for VA Secretary Erik Shinseki to go, that was the end because Dole, a war hero, wounded veteran, great public servant and frequent user of VA services has more credibility on this issue than any American. Having introduced Shinseki at his confirmation in 2009, this must be a very painful experience for him.
Senator Dole’s comments made me think of my cousin, Molly from Middleburg, Virginia who worked for eleven years as a volunteer at the Walter Reed Army Hospital...
Video shows UNM professor did not assault officer
UNM professor David Correia has been an outspoken critic of APD in light of the police department’s ongoing spree of controversial shootings and damning Department of Justice report which found gross violations of civil rights and a culture where accountability is nearly non-existent. Correia has stood in solidarity with the family members who have lost loved ones at the hands of APD. He has appeared on New Mexico Mercury’s “Insight New Mexico” and we found him to be courteous, informed and passionate...
Not invited to the party
Yesterday, New Mexico threw a big party, but the overwhelming majority of the state’s residents didn’t attend. They can claim, with varying levels of plausibility, that the candidates who emerged from the Democratic and Republican primaries don’t represent them.
Those who have the most plausible case, an incontrovertible case in fact, are the 239,151 independents. Under state law they are technically people who, when they registered to vote, declined to state a party preference. Independents are so marginalized in New Mexico that we don’t even allow them to call themselves independent, merely those who declined to choose a major party...