Politically Motivated

As members of the

they’re new. As political insiders? Not so much. Former Center for Civic Policy Director Eli Il Yong Lee and veteran campaign managers Neri Holguin and Sandra Wechsler have teamed up as a new PAC dedicated to re-energizing progressive voters.

“The three of us, just taking the pulse of folks we work with—New Mexico voters—felt the need to reclaim politics in New Mexico,” Wechsler tells SFR. “We’ve fallen so far from the energy Obama created.”

That’s not their only point. The Justice League’s recently released cartoon ad, featuring Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez as a Sarah Palin-smitten robot and Martinez’ opponent, Diane Denish, as something of a savior, calls the 2010 election “the decision of the decade”—largely because the next governor will preside over a potential overhaul of New Mexico’s voting districts.

“By all accounts, redistricting is the biggest single factor that affects how elections are waged in New Mexico,” Wechsler says. “The governor has the power to either approve or veto any redistricting plans that come from the Legislature—and a huge say on how redistricting happens across the state.”

That view comes across in the PAC’s cartoon ad—the first of many, Wechsler promises—in which a diabolically cackling Sarah Palin plans a redistricting-driven GOP takeover in New Mexico “for the next decade!”

Santa Fe Reporter