
After last night's meeting at Santa Fe's Democratic Party HQ, SFR posed a question to County Chair Richard Ellenberg:
What's the biggest concern for Dems in the upcoming election?"Motivating our base," Ellenberg replied. "In my view, government and big business failed. As a result, everybody's having hard times, and
there's a lot of anti-incumbent sentiment."The meeting, a small, intimate affair, focused mainly on upcoming candidate events and a presentation by Santa Fe Community College Board Vice Chair Linda Siegle and President Sheila Ortego on the school's upcoming
bond issue.
For the annals of hard sells:
"It's gonna be a tough election because everyone's being targeted. We need to get us Democrats to stick together...
If we have some Republicans in there, it's gonna ruin everything."—Leticia Montoya, Northern New Mexico Campaign Manager for
beleaguered Secretary of State
Mary Herrera"The Republicans targeted him because
they didn't think he had statewide support, [but] he's a fine judge. Let everybody know
they need to work their way down the ballot."—former Appeals Court Judge Lynn Pickard on Robert Robles, who is running in a contested race for Appeals Court Judge
The bond issue elicited most of the questions and concerns, but afterward, Ellenberg waxed philosophical on Democrats, 2010 and Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez.
"Susana hasn't taken a position on anything except that criminals need to be prosecuted," Ellenberg tells SFR. "Hear, hear!" he adds with a big laugh. But then he got down to business, attributing the loss of base support to "general disillusionment."
"Despite the fact that this administration has done more than any administration since FDR's, people are saying, 'What have you done for us?'" Ellenberg laments. His tactic to bring back Democratic support is to remind people of the real issues at stake—things like environmental regulations like the pit rules, which Martinez
opposes.
"It's going to be interesting," he concludes.
"Folks this year are buying things they wouldn't normally look at."
How about the state party actually tasking its candidates with actually giving the voters what they need and deserve, like some intelligent and workable plans to address the economy, our energy future and the environment? Unless Denish stops the stupid attack ads, regardless of what Martinez is airing, and starts winning over voters with a path forward to get NM out of the Richardson rut, Martinez is going to win, the Legislature will be in a constant deadlock with the Governor's office and the budget shortfalls, furloughs and cuts to service we are experiencing now will be nothing compared to what is likely to come. It's not "what have you done for us", as Ellenberg thinks, that voters care about, rather it's "what the hell are you going to do to start FIXING all these problems" that we care about. Ellenberg (and the rest of the "senior" party "leadership") seem to have lost touch with what the people actually want and need and like to wax poetic about the political glory of days gone way. There folks can step aside and let younger folks with a fresh vision and energy take the lead. And please take all the patron politicians with you...
The wars for empire affect the entire economy. Why did Ben Ray Lujan vote yesterday for $33 billion in additional funding for Afghanistan? 102 Democrats in Congress voted against it. Why did he vote for it? Can he explain why he supports the war in Afghanistan?