New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman's Blog

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  • Even as fires rage, fireworks ban a tough nut to crack
  • ‘Junior’ budget bills fill in the gaps
  • Straight from Source NM: Dede's article on the 2022 legislative session--The games people play
  • Ten More Doors Excerpt in Jemez Springs Newspaper
  • Ten More Doors Got a Great Book Review in the Albuquerque Journal
  • Ten More Doors: Passing the Torch to a New Generation of Democratic Women
  • Authors Bill deBuys and Dede Feldman: More than Local
  • NM In Depth Calls Ten More Doors "Surprising... A Cautionary Tale"
  • 20 Years Ago: Drawing NM District Lines in the Shadow of 9-11
  • Prison Gerrymandering Twists New Mexico Maps

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Hope for 2018-- from the Bottom Up in New Mexico

Need to revive hope in the New Year?   Here are a few of the New Mexico solutions featured in my new book,  Another Way Forward: Grassroots Solutions from New Mexico. I will be talking about others Jan. 13 1-3 at the Los Poblanos Farm Store, 4803 Rio Grande Blvd. in Albuquerque. 

Solution #1: A service corps for young people to provide training in outdoor occupations, a sense of stewardship for New Mexico’s public lands and a leg up to further education.

Solution #2: A farmers market located outside a primary health clinic to offer low-income mothers fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms at affordable prices.

Solution #3: A community land trust to provide affordable housing, preserve a traditional neighborhood, and clean up an old industrial wasteland.

Solution #4: Tele-conferencing to bring the expertise of medical specialists to rural areas and address chronic diseases and opiod addictions.

Solution #5: A new type of experiential museum for all ages that is breaking the traditional mold and creating jobs for young artists.

Solution #6: A small factory that provides quality, on-site childcare for its employees at 25 cents per hour.

Solution #7: A civics program that gives kids a real-world opportunity to write a bill and lobby it through the legislature.

Solution #8: A medical residency program that encourages—rather than discourages—budding health care providers to locate in remote rural areas.

Solution #9: A fire department whose EMTs help 911 callers find services and solve problems rather than just taking them to the emergency room.

Solution #10: A program that matches the savings of low-income families if they take a financial literacy course and use the money for school, a small business or a home.

These are only ten reasons to have hope in the New Year —look around your community for the problem solvers, or just read my book, available through me www.dedefeldman.com/another, at Amazon (including Kindle) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999586408, Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/another-way-forward-dede-feldman/1127525590;jsessionid=E807877B1B77494C2FA174B10F926C74.prodny_store02-atgap05?ean=9780999586402 or BookWorks, where I’ll be having an event Feb. 1. at 6 pm. 

January 04, 2018 in Books, Current Affairs, Economy, Finance, Work, Families, Partners, Food and Drink, Health & Safety, Our Communities, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0)

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A View from Just Outside the Roundhouse: All Hands on Deck

We Are All Citizens Now

16299845_10211387180376576_4675931363588344921_oPhoto Art by Carolyn Fischman

Jan. 31, 2017

What a difference a few months have made. I remember when I lost my first election in 1995 writing a letter to the voters who had supported me. I said then that the most important office in a democracy was that of Citizen, not councilor, not senator not president. With “alternative facts,” blatantly unethical appointments and rash executive orders, it’s even truer today. But how to keep the momentum from the millions (yes millions!) in the streets and even more on the Internet going in an effective direction?   My suggestion is to keep your eye on the ball—Congress. I’m trying not to pay much attention to Trump’s talk and bluster but to his policies, which must be funded (or defunded) and passed by the Republican Congress.   There are lots of online tools to make it easy to contact your representatives like Indivisible ABQ. But no sense in preaching to the choir. I’m concentrating on moderate Rs who might still have some common sense—Jeff Flake and John McCain in AZ, Susan Collins in Maine. You might even have some relatives or friends outside of New Mexico. Work with them! Yes, many Republicans will say no, or equivocate. But for every elected official, this is a profile in courage moment. Remind them of that.

And don’t forget that letters to the editor, op eds, phone calls and hand-written letters count. Mailbox full? Switchboard tied up? Be ingenious. One friend suggested post cards to Rep. Paul Ryan’s home (Paul Ryan 700 St. Lawrence Ave., Janesville, WI 53545); another suggested filling in required email forms with a zip code from the targeted state. I suggest tea party style town halls in all swing districts. Hey, we might even have to travel. This is what a movement looks like.

Ethics? What Ethics?

President Trump’s unwillingness to divest, to disclose, to remove himself completely from his hotels and businesses guarantees continued conflicts of interest and public distrust. His insistence that the laws don’t apply to him sounds like a central African dictator, who’s squirreling away the country’s money. Even worse are the conflicts that his top appointments brush off so lightly. So what if the new HHS Secretary profited off of pharmaceutical stocks he bought in advance of a vote on RX pricing? Too bad if OMB pick Mick Mulvaney didn’t pay taxes on his housekeeper. Not long ago that was enough to stop Tom Daschle and Zoie Baird, but not this group. Shameless behavior on display here http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/tom-prices-confirmation-hearing-muddies-the-swamp as Republican senators wink and nod at nominees enduring the pesky press and public. Here’s another run-down of all the conflicts:http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/01/trumps-appointees-conflicts-of-interest-a-crib-sheet/512711/?utm_source=eb And is it coincidental that none of the Muslim majority countries where Trump has business dealings are covered by the travel ban?

Friends, if we loose our outrage about the basic principles of ethics and transparency—we’re collaborating. Common Cause, a group I am now connected with, is standing up at the national and state level. Support them. Closest to home, you can contact legislators for a strong ethics commission, disclosure of PAC and lobbyist activities and other reforms. To find out how, go to nm.commoncause.org and scroll down to Democracy Wire, at the very bottom. Common Cause New Mexico has a Face book page, too.

ABQ School Board Elections Tuesday Feb. 7

Lorenzo Garcia, Amy Legant are my picks for the North Valley district. I know, there’s only one seat—but longtime friend Lorenzo G. told me he wasn’t running and I told Amy Legant I’d support her. Darn it! Not much help on this one.

Solutions from the Grassroots

As gridlock—and worse—looms nationally, we need to remember that we have a lot to be proud of here in New Mexico. I am now hard at work on a book featuring some of the solutions that are working here at the grassroots level in health care, housing, local foods, education, and arts. I’ve always believed that real change comes from the bottom up and now I’m exploring that idea. And I’m finding a lot of local heroes here who didn’t wait for Washington to start solving problems. Let me know if you know one.

Repeal and Replace is Really, Really Bad for NM

The Affordable Care Act has cut our 2nd highest uninsured rate by half. Over 266,000 citizens who didn’t have insurance now can go to the doc thanks to the Medicaid expansion. 40,000 more people get it through the exchange, which subsidizes policies and makes sure that they include basic benefits with no lifetime or annual caps and no exclusions due to preexisting conditions. All that will be swept away if there is no replacement, along with a reduction in RX prices for seniors and free screenings for Medicare recipients. I’ve seen estimates that from 6,000- 19,000 people will lose jobs in clinics, hospitals, insurance companies that have benefited from the act.

Fortunately, the NM legislature had the foresight to enshrine some of the ACA insurance reforms in state law, something that I was a part of. For example, under state law, insurers cannot charge women more than men for the same policy, “20- somethings” can be included on parents policies, and 85% of insurance revenues must be spent on care, not profit or admin.  

Republicans are already finding out how difficult it is to replace the ACA. http://wapo.st/2kccZkx?tid=ss_mail Certainly the ACA has not been perfect. Deductibles, premiums and co-pays have gone up. But just wait until you see the death spiral when the mandate is withdrawn. My prediction is that the replacement will be the same sorry health savings accounts or barebones policies that cost more with less coverage. Lifetime and annual limits will be restored. And oh, if we can buy cheaper policies across state lines, kiss our local insurance companies (like Presbyterian) goodbye. Lots of political risk here, but nothing compared to the real lives at stake.

Call members of the U.S. Senate and tell them not to confirm Tom Price as HHS Secretary. Meanwhile,

Keep the faith! With all its perils, we may be entering the most exciting time of our lives since the 1960s (for those of you who remember them).

January 31, 2017 in Campaign Finance & Election Reform, Current Affairs, Economy, Finance, Work, Ethics Reform, Families, Partners, Health & Safety, National Priorities, Our Communities, Politics, the legislature | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The APS Telenovela Continues... Aug. 28, 2015

Attention APS Students, Parents, Teachers and Taxpayers:

 In our latest episode of "As the District Turns," on which I was asked to weigh in for KNME’s In Focus, Ex-Deputy Superintendent Jason Martinez, was telling a Denver Judge that he was really telecommuting to Albuquerque from his Denver home, and thus not violating the conditions of his bail agreement.  Unbeknownst to APS staffers and board members, Martinez was awaiting trial on a number of felony counts—one for alleged sexual abuse of children and the another for a domestic violence assault on a boyfriend.  He was not supposed to leave the state.

APS staffers, including Superintendant Luis Valentino, the man who hired him without checking his references or heeding repeated warnings that he had not undergone a required background check, saw him often, however, and said so.  The judge has now held Martinez and upped his bail to $200,000.

 It’s only by luck—or incompetence—that the public found out about any of this when the new superintendant Valentino (on the job for 2 ½ months) sent a text to Education Secretary Hanna Skandera boasting that he was going to fire the district’s Chief Financial Officer(CFO), who was acting without authority in trying to put the kibosh on a contract for IT services that Jason Martinez was trying to give to an old friend, Bud Bullard.  Bullard had earlier been dismissed from the Denver School District for taking kickbacks.  Foolishly, the CFO, Don Moya, was worried about the waste of taxpayer dollars.  One problem: the Superintendant mistakenly sent the text with his boast to the CFO himself instead of Skandera.

Moya then apparently sent the text back to Valentino and it somehow became public.  The cat was then out of the bag.  Shortly thereafter, Moya was put on administrative leave.  To date, no reason has been given for that.

 Meanwhile The NM Political Report’s Joey Peters uncovered the questionable background of Jason Martinez—without much more than a Google search, I’m told. The public outcry began. And rumors started spreading.

How could the new Super have hired a pedophile without a background check or even a simple reference check? Aren’t even parent volunteers required to get a background check? Is this Superintendant competent to run one of the country’s largest school districts?

Why was the Super communicating with the controversial PED Secretary about his intention to fire staff?  Was he protecting Jason Martinez? Does he routinely ask permission from the Secretary on major moves? Did the two have a prior relationship before Valentino came to APS? Is he a shill for the administration?

Some of these questions were fueled by a whistleblower lawsuit filed a few days thereafter by Don Moya.  It was filed not just against the APS Superintendant and the Board but also vs. the Public Education Secretary and Governor.  Moya alleges he was put on leave because he blew the whistle on Jason Martinez whom he says got the dept. superintendant job, which had earlier been promised to him.   His lawyer comes from a Santa Fe firm who also employs a Democratic House member, prompting calls from the Governor that Moya’s complaint is purely partisan.

Honest, you can’t make this stuff up.

Luis Valentino is not resigning.  Instead he made an apology tour to Albuquerque media, pleading for understanding.  But Valentino is standing on shaky ground. With only a few months under his belt, he has no offsetting accomplishments to point to, no reservoir of good will he can draw upon. 

Yet incredibly, the APS Board delays action on whether his should be fired or retained.  At their last meeting on Thursday Aug. 27 they decided—to decide at the next meeting.  Sound familiar?  It’s exactly what they did at their last closed session on Sunday Aug. 23.

 Here’s my opinion: Valentino should do more than apologize.  He should resign.  I feel bad for him.  Maybe it was just a mistake.  But students and teachers suffer consequences for their mistakes. The top dogs should too. I don’t see how Valentino can inspire any credibility. Someone who hires a friend in spite of repeated red flags cannot rebuild public trust in the district. And if the Board enables his behavior it will do even more to dash public confidence than it has by its inaction.

Yes, it may cost money to get rid of Valentino.  But how much is public trust in our schools worth, anyway?   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

August 28, 2015 in Current Affairs, Education, Families, Partners, Our Communities | Permalink | Comments (0)

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In Upcoming Election, Don't Overlook Mental Health Ballot Issue

    This election season, I've been working on two important ballot questions one one whether we should impose a tiny tax increase here in Alb. to provide long-sought mental health programs, and another on decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana.  Here's an Op Ed I wrote for the Alb. Journal on the mental health issue last week.  When you go out to vote in the next few weeks, don't forget these two issues at the bottom on the ballot!

From the Alb. Journal Oct. 9, 2014

Evidence keeps mounting that the lack of mental health treatment facilities here in Bernalillo County has tragic consequences for children, families, taxpayers and for the community’s image as a safe place to live and do business. The news surrounding the shooting of James Boyd and the Justice Department’s finding that the Albuquerque police are inadequately trained to handle people with mental illness just keeps on coming. And it is not good.

 For the past 14 years, there have been countless memorials, task forces and studies commissioned by Bernalillo County and the New Mexico Legislature that all say the same thing: Our stopgap system of treating mentally ill people in crisis through emergency room admissions, incarceration and overmedication is not working. I have been involved in many of these efforts.

 Most recently the city-county Task Force on Behavioral Health has recommended what prior task forces have recommended: a centralized crisis stabilization center where people in crisis could be taken to talk to mental health professionals to reduce acute stress. A center like this is far preferable to an already overcrowded detention facility or a hospital emergency room.

 Most often these facilities re-traumatize people with mental illness, and increase the possibility of a violent confrontation further down the circular path. Meanwhile the taxpayer’s bill is mounting. And jails and emergency rooms are not cheap.

 Yet while policy makers, law enforcement officials and other have long known that we need a crisis triage center and follow-up treatment, they have not come forward with the funding to adequately address this problem.

The result is the broken system that creates violent confrontations between the police and homeless mentally ill men like James Boyd. The longstanding situation has disheartened the huge number people with treatable mental illnesses (estimated in two out of every 10).

In addition, it literally strikes fear into the hearts of families who just don’t know what to do – or where to send their son or daughter – when things get terribly out of control.

Now members of the public have a chance to weigh in on this problem and let elected officials know that this is a problem with a solution that has been vetted and must be funded.

In Bernalillo County on Nov. 4, citizens can vote “YES” in support of a 1/8 percent gross receipts tax advisory question (regarding) needed mental health programs in Bernalillo County – programs like the one the Albuquerque Journal in its Oct. 1 editorial urged the Task Force to pursue: a mental health crisis center. Although the measure would not become law upon its passage it would give County Commissioners a push to pass an ordinance which could generate approximately $19 million for mental health services we desperately need.

As a member of the advisory committee to support passage of this advisory question, I encourage you to learn more at www.YesForMentalHealthSolutions.com.

October 17, 2014 in Current Affairs, Families, Partners, Health & Safety, Our Communities, Politics, the legislature | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Is New Mexico a Basket Case?

Blogger's Note:  I don't like to be pessimistic, but this article, written by Chris Cervini, with whom I worked in the legislature, rings very true.  He-- and others -- are leaving the state for better opportunities elsewhere. For those he leaves behind, he raises some serious questions.  What do you think? 

Oh, sad New Mexico, we love, we love you so

The Collapse of the promise of New Mexico and a possible path forward

This is a story about a place that seems to be hollowing out. A great promise dashed on the rocks of low expectations.

This is a story of New Mexico over the past 6 years.

There was a period of about 20 years when it seemed like something big was going to pop here. There was growth, hope and an influx of new people and new ideas. Innovators, job makers, thinkers, creators – they all came to this quirky place from the mid 80s on.

The high-water mark was somewhere around 2004 when Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class listed Albuquerque — of all places – as a top destination and incubator of the creative class.

It bears noting that this period of advancement and growth occurred under both Democratic and Republican leadership and that the fault for its demise does not lay with one political party or another.

In fact, apart from the staggering global economic meltdown, some of the causes for our decline lay in fundamental long-held beliefs by both parties. But I’ll get to that later.

Right now I want to tell a story.

The Exodus

My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I came back to New Mexico in 2002-2003. We had both grown up here, but our parents were getting older and we felt it fitting to come back and spend some quality time with them while we still had it. Besides, I’m a Democratic political operative and communications pro and 2002 was a pretty good time for those types of people to come back to New Mexico.

Upon our return we were in the midst of a New Mexico on the move. Our friends included law students, accomplished grant writers, artists, Web-design people, medical residents, physical therapists, actors and innovators. These were people who wanted to start businesses and generally build out this promising place. It was electric.

But it wouldn’t last.

One by one, people started to move away. The promise did not match the reality. People began bumping up into the age-old New Mexican syndrome of endless handwringing and naysaying about how things can’t be done, rather than what might be possible.

“But we’re New Mexico, we cannot possibly attract company X or industry Y.”

I saw friends beating their heads against walls trying to make something happen but being grinded down by obstacles such as a lack of a real private economy. New Mexico was a place of hope and promise, but there was no real substance to it.

Over time, nearly all our friends left seeking greener pastures and better opportunities.

This is not the “New Mexico losing its bright kids” narrative (though that’s a major problem). It’s New Mexico losing talented people who were attracted by the promise of the place only to find the promise empty.

Here’s a quick rundown of friends who left:

PR executive and entrepreneur; talented photographer and professor; pediatrician; Web-design guru and her engineer husband; nationally recognized business-process and organizational consultant; successful grant writer for national organizations; journalist; attorney; IT person; neurological rehabilitation therapist; retired attorney and arts supporter.

A fairly accomplished group – all gone from New Mexico because they couldn’t make a go of it. To a person, they are all happier in their new places.

Diagnosing the Problem

We can’t lay all the blame at the feet of the 2008-2009 Global Financial Crisis. That crisis hit everyone, yet New Mexico remains bleeding on the floor while our neighbors are moving forward to what is setting up to be a promising economic 2014.

And therein is the problem. While our neighbors may shoot forward and grow like weeds in 2014, we may see only modest growth. And that will give our politicians and business leaders the excuse they need to proclaim from the highest mountains how we stared down the apocalypse and are now on the rebound.

Nevermind that the basic underpinnings of our state’s economy remain unchanged, leaving us weaker and more vulnerable to the whims of oil and gas prices or government shutdowns.

We can prattle on about combined reporting and tax rates when the basic fact is this: We could likely take away the state’s income tax IN TOTAL and not pry one single company from our neighbors.

Sadly, our state’s economy is almost completely propped up by extractive industries and government jobs. Make no mistake – they have both served us well, but they are not enough.

The “sadly” is this: The permanence and historical success of those two sectors allow our policymakers and business leaders to be lazy.

There’s no need to build a 21st century workforce as long as our state is propped up by 19th century industries (oil and bureaucracy).

So we ride out the bad times, claim victory when things get a little better and ultimately change nothing in New Mexico.

My friends came to New Mexico in a period of historic high energy prices and government expansion – it made the state look rosier than it is. Once there is uncertainty or a hiccup in either of those sectors, the rosy picture evaporates and the ugly truth is revealed. New Mexico is a beautiful place to visit and, if you’re rich, buy a summer home. Otherwise, you’re in for a hard slog to try and get a bite out of a pie that never grows.

The Blame Game

We are all to blame.

While New Mexico is the worst place to raise kids; while people in the Colonias can’t even get running water or electricity; while brutal, senseless violence invades even our safest communities – we all just go along to get along.

Politicians nibble at the edges. Republicans cut some taxes and say they’ve saved the economy; Democrats throw a bone to the film industry and say they’ve helped diversify the economy. Neither side gets it.

The media is obsessed with stabbings, shootings, gore and, of course, pooh-poohing any unconventional idea that might shake things up.

The business community – so weak – panders to whoever is in charge. I was in the prior administration – they pandered to Richardson and now they pander to Martinez. This is partly because we don’t have a strong private sector that can stand on its own, and partly a failing of leadership in the business community.

Average New Mexicans? Well, we sit around and wait for something to happen. We’re resigned to a mindset of “what can’t be done” – because it’s all we’ve ever known.

A way forward – some recommendations

Children go to bed hungry and attend dilapidated schools in a state that has tens of billions of dollars in permanent funds and huge reserves.
To make change, we all have to get sick and tired of being at the bottom and work to do something about it.

Some leaders call the permanent funds a rainy day fund and warn that we should never, ever touch them.

Those people are borderline criminals in a state that is at the bottom of every good list and near the top of every bad list.

If New Mexico is ever to be that place of hope and promise, it needs to shake things up fundamentally. That means doing the following:

1. Create a long-term human-development fund to pay for adult basic education and workforce training. Leverage federal dollars.

Why? Because our current workforce is lacking. Companies cannot find qualified individuals, which makes attracting companies tough for economic developers. Plus, kids will do better if their parents have skills to get better jobs, live in better houses and provide more stability.

2. Diversify the economy.

Renewable energy is where the world is headed and New Mexico has a wealth of homegrown renewable resources that can help develop and diversify the economy. This is a 20-year play, but it’s a critical strategy to give us at least one competitive advantage against the states that have been eating our lunch since 1912.

Also, let’s shut up about pitting renewables against oil and gas. Both can co-exist. This is a falsehood created by the right. Don’t buy into it; it’s not a zero-sum-game.

3. Invest in early childhood – across the spectrum.

From health-care diagnosis to education, we need to do a better job of investing in our kids from birth through high-school.

Some will say: “You can’t just throw money at the problem.”

I say: our most important resource is the future generation of kids who will build us out of our current morass. Every dollar NOT put into programs to ensure we are raising the best and brightest is a dollar wasted.

4. Broadband.

It’s more important in a 21st century economy than roads or ports – so prioritize making New Mexico a statewide high-speed hotspot and haven for data centers and cloud computing.

5. Make Native Americans and traditional Hispanic communities part of the solution.

One thing our competition can never take away from us: New Mexico is blessed with a unique and rich cultural tradition unlike any other in the WORLD. Artisans, craftsman and people keeping community traditions alive make our state special. New Mexico should be a global destination for seekers who want to experience our culture, our cuisine and our rugged beauty.

Not working with traditional communities on how we can respectfully highlight these contributions to global culture is missing a huge opportunity.

6. Finally, don’t pooh-pooh the new.

We live our lives running down what’s new and what we don’t understand. And we’ve suffered because of it.

As a New Mexican, the next time you find yourself saying anything close to: “But that’s not how we did it before” – slap yourself. How we did it before doesn’t work.

Let’s welcome some new ideas and create some of our own.

Happy Trails

We are leaving, for now. My wife has been successful and received a recent promotion, which means we will soon be moving to Austin. We are one of those families Joe Monahan talks about – the ones getting paid to leave New Mexico.

We have both been wildly successful in New Mexico and thank it and the people for our opportunities. Not the least of which is Diane Denish, who took a chance on me and is truly one of the good eggs.

In closing, New Mexico is not without its share of doers and thinkers and creators — all who want to take the state to the next level and turn New Mexico around.

Let’s hope these people don’t get buried in the sea of negativity and failure that has pervaded this place for far too long.

New Mexico will always be our home and we may someday return.
But now, like all our friends who left, we are going to check out those greener pastures for a while and wish all New Mexicans peace and prosperity.

 

April 07, 2014 in Current Affairs, Economy, Finance, Work, Education, Environment & Energy, Families, Partners, Our Communities, Politics, the legislature, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Dede in Wonderland

Albuquerque's Weekly Alibi just published this review of my book, Inside the NM Senate: Boots, Suits & Citizens.  I'd like to share it with you here.

Dede in Wonderland

BY STEVEN ROBERT ALLEN

Inside the New Mexico Senate: Boots, Suits, and Citizens

Dede Feldman
UNM Press
paperback
nonfiction
$24.95

 

Former state senator Dede Feldman describes her first legislative session in 1997 as “a little like riding a motorcycle in a thunderstorm in the nude.” Sound like an exaggeration? It isn't. Legislative sessions in New Mexico can be terrifying, bombastic and exhilarating.

Inside the New Mexico Senate is an astonishingly honest, entertaining dive into the heart of New Mexico politics. It’s helpful that Feldman once had a long career as a journalist, because she brings a reporter’s eye and ear to the affair. What could have been just a drab schematic of the legislative process turns into a well-researched page-turner populated with colorful personalities, conflicted relationships and plenty of enticing political drama.

Throughout, Feldman makes it clear that she loved being a state senator. “It was one of the most significant and meaningful things I've done in my life,” she said in a recent interview. “It was an honor to serve the people in my community. I made some of the best friends in my life there, common allies in a common cause. That’s a great feeling. Of course, being there could also be frustrating, and you see that in this book. Even if you have the very best of intentions, good people can get trapped in a flawed system.”

The book’s overarching purpose, says Feldman, is to provide progressive advocates with useful advice about how to make the system work in their favor, to protect the environment, improve education, expand health care, decrease poverty and reform government. Sprinkled throughout the book are various case studies designed to illustrate how this is possible.

“(Albuquerque Representative) Gail Chasey was able to ban the death penalty in New Mexico through perseverance, grace and grit over a 10-year period,” Feldman says. “This book explains how that was done and how the advocates won this and other victories. It also explains how some of these battles were lost.”

Both politics and process inside the Roundhouse are notoriously complex. Feldman emphasizes that in a place like New Mexico, the road to political success is often paved with a deep understanding of the intricacies and histories of personal connections. “We are a state based on relationships,” she says. “Here in New Mexico, if you want to make change, you're well-served to map the complex web of relationships of those in power.” Part of the attraction of Inside the New Mexico Senate is it allows the reader to trace that web without getting completely entangled in it.

Steven Robert Allen is the Director of Public Policy at the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico. From 2007 to 2011, as director of Common Cause New Mexico, he worked with Feldman to advocate for various government reforms.

 Dede Feldman launches Inside the New Mexico Senate

Rio Chama Steakhouse
Thursday, Jan. 30, 5pm
414 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe 
riochamasteakhouse.com, (505) 955-0765
FREE

Bookworks
Tuesday, Feb. 4, 7pm
4022 Rio Grande NW
bkwrks.com, 344-8139
FREE

 

   

January 23, 2014 in Campaign Finance & Election Reform, Current Affairs, Ethics Reform, Families, Partners, Health & Safety, Our Communities, Politics, the legislature | Permalink | Comments (0)

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