Haitian relief organized by Alex Wirth, Santa Fe Prep Junior

EDITOR'S NOTE:  This is not a usual post for my Grassroots! site. But I believe the relief effort initiated by Alex Wirth for the horrendous catastrophe that has hit Haiti deserves note.

I have led an effort on my (Santa Fe Prep) student council to organize a response and would invite you all to donate. An online donation to Mercy Corps emergency response team: www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/sfpstudentcouncil will help us reach a fundraising goal of $3,000 dollars for the people in the region. If you need any more motivation, here is a video I made outlining the student council's response to the crisis. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljQ4DK9OWCc
Any donation is appreciated. - Alex

Municipal Election Voters' Guide to be published, Friday, Jan 22

League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County will prepare their Municipal Election Voters' Guide to be published in the January 22 issue of The New Mexican.

The League will also post the Guide on their website: www.lwvsfc.org

Also, plan to attend Candidate Forums.  Read about dates & locations here.

Santa Fe municipal elections coming. Engage! Attend candidate forums!

Candidate Forums -- Santa Fe Municipal Election
These forums are co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County and the American Association of University Women-Santa Fe Chapter.

City Councilor Forum Thursday, January 28, 6:30-8 pm

Unitarian Church

District 1

Chris Calvert (incumbent)

Doug Nava

Russell Simon

District 2

Stefanie Beninato

Rebecca Wurzburger (incumbent)

District 3

Carmichael Dominguez (incumbent)

District 4

Ronald Trujillo (incumbent)

Mayoral Forum Tuesday, February 2, 6:30-8 pm

Santa Fe Prep Auditorium

Mayoral

Miguel Chavez

David Coss (incumbent)

Asenath Kepler

For more information, please contact Meredith Machen, president@lwvsfc.org, 988-4523 office or 577-6337 cell.

PLUS INFO ON OUR VOTER'S GUIDE IS HERE.

Democratic Party of Santa Fe County ... active and invigorated! Events planned.

Future Events:
Tuesday, January 19, 2010  CANCELLED
LEGISLATIVE DINNER
Community Convention Center, Santa Fe

Fat Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Mardi Gras Party
The Eldorado Hotel, 6-10pm
Dancing with The Wise Guys, games, contests
Party with your friends and Neighbors
Tickets: $45 each or $40 each for two or more.

Saturday February 20, 2010
CONVENTION & ELECTION OF DELEGATES
Ortiz Middle School, Santa Fe

The County Democratic Party has lots going on! For full details about current and future activities, contact me: Richard D. Ellenberg, Chair Democratic Party of Santa Fe County, 505.992.1396, sfdchair@gmail.com, and visit our website http://www.santafedemocrats.org

PAST EVENT: ELECTION DAY! Join a Santa Fe phone bank! Help keep Democrats' 60-vote coalition in U.S. Senate!

FROM PAM COLEMAN, OFA, on 1/19:
US Senate race in MA still too close to call...so we need to make calls to help get out the vote!

Phone bank schedule....
TODAY, Tuesday - Jan 19 -----ELECTION DAY
9 am - 6 pm
Santa Fe Firehouse # 3
Cerillos just south of 2nd Street
Please call with any questions...(505) 715-0787
See you then!
Peace and Blessings,
Pam

We must pass Healthcare reform if we have any chance of passing any type of Democratic legislation in the future. THAT MEANS WE NEED TO KEEP OUR 6O DEMOCRATIC VOTES IN THE SENATE.  If you'd like to get involved in this historical vote, please contact me: Pam Coleman, Regional Field Director, Organizing for America, (505) 715-0787, ColemanP@dnc.org

PAST EVENT: CANDLELIGHT VIGIL in ABQ December 3rd

After reading about this event, to return to EngageVolunteer, click here:

From Linda Allison, Albuquerque

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL

JOIN US

Thursday Evening, DEC 3RD

6:00 P.M. TO 8:00 P.M.

NOB HILL

Gathter at 5:30 pm at the parking lot on Silver behind La Montanita Grocery Store

on Central Avenue & Carlisle Blvd

TO HONOR THE 45,000 AMERICANS

THAT DIE EVERY YEAR DUE TO LACK OF HEALTH CARE

AND THE 50 MILLION AMERICANS

WHO ARE WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE

Please bring a small candle and flashlight in case the weather hampers the candles.

SPONSORED BY DEMOCRATS FOR CHANGE

For further information contact Linda: lalallison7@gmail.com

Here's a great Resource Center for the Healthcare bills...

Thanks to Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan for this rich site...one stop shop about the healthcare bills:

http://stabenow.senate.gov/healthcare/

Our rally brings together two activists. Read the resulting interview in today's Santa Fe New Mexican.

Doctor pushes for a nation with universal health care

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/11-Lehrer-interview--ready

Dr. Tyler Taylor is interviewed by Michael Lehrer, a former Los Angeles teacher and a writer who now lives in Santa Fe. He became acquainted with Dr. Taylor when the doctor spoke at our public option rally.  The interview is a result of e-mails and conversations between Lehrer and Taylor.  [Photo of Dr. Taylor reused from The New Mexican article.]

Our rally is how Dr. Taylor and Michale Lehrer first met!!!  How cool is that??!!

Lemons, lemons everywhere...all to let Sen. Bingaman know we feel the Baucus bill is a lemon without the Public Option!

Lemons...60 juicy lemons...one pitcher-full that said PLEASE MAKE LEMONADE and two baskets-full all hand-signed by Santa Feans in favor of the PUBLIC OPTION NOW! ... all were delivered today to Senator Bingaman's Santa Fe office at noon by 20 volunteers from Grassroots4PublicOption!  

We want to let Sen. Bingaman know that we think the Senate Finance Committee health-care bill authored by Sen. Max Baucus, which does not include the public option, is a lemon!  We are urging Sen. Bingaman to continue his efforts to fight for the public option, and that we will not take 'no public option' for an answer. We want him to make lemonade out of these lemons.  (The lemon concept was part of a nationwide MoveOn effort, and Bingaman's office had already received quite a few lemons prior to our arrival, but nowhere near 60!!!)

Before we entered Sen. Bingaman's office, we gathered outside for approx 30 minutes, holding up a banner and signs PUBLIC OPTION NOW! and HONK IF YOU SUPPORT PUBLIC OPTION.   We also continued gathering signatures from passersby on our petition that asks for the public health-insurance option to be included in any healthcare reform passed by Congress.

Grassroots4PublicOption delivered about 850 copies of petition signatures today to Bingaman.  About half of the petitions were collected at the Sept. 13 March4Healthcare and the balance before and after the event.  The originals are being delivered to the White House by Friday.

A gracious Bingaman staffer ushered all of us into their Conference Room and spent at least 15 to 20 minutes to accept our lemons and petitions, answer our questions, assure us that Sen Bingaman supports the public option and promise that she would convey our messages to him.  She also quipped that they office staff have been checking out lemon recipes!  That got a great laugh from us.

Thank you, Democracy for New Mexico!

In a gross oversight, I neglected to publically thank Democracy for New Mexico for their tremendous support of March4Healthcare!  They not only helped publicize the event on their blog beforehand, they sent notices to their email list, took photos and videos at the event, and posted an in-depth commentary the day after. Don't miss their post:

http://www.democracyfornewmexico.com/democracy_for_new_mexico/2009/09/public-option-rally-draws-400-noisy-advocates-to-albuquerque-civic-plaza-photos-and-video.html

My sincerest thanks to Barbara Wold especially.

Summary of March4Healthcare.

Yesterday was a huge success!

The crowd of approximately 400 remained engaged and energized the entire two hours of our program.   Our speakers' remarks hit the bulls eye, their expertise gave the event huge credibility, their swagger and passion kept all of us riveted!  They signed up and stepped forward and really helped us make the event happen.  We got coverage by all three tv-networks, story with photos from The Albuquerque Journal, numerous blog postings, pre-event coverage by KSFR 101.1FM in Santa Fe - and likely other media we don't know about yet.

The crowd began to 

gather.

And gather!

Our distinguished speakers...

Over the next couple days, I'll be posting photos of our fantastic speakers.  And eventually hope to share their remarks with you.

Senator Dede Feldman

Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino

Kathryn Harris Tijerina

Michelle Brown-Yazzie

Charlotte Roybal

              Dr. Tyler Taylor

 

Carmen Emerson

Carter Bundy