Note to the Democratic Party

With Heather Wilson's announcement yesterday that she will not run for Governor in 2010, there is only one thing that is crystal clear about the gubernatorial race... The Democratic Party of New Mexico has a messaging problem:

“Regardless of who emerges from the Republican primary, the lack of experience in their entire slate of Republican candidates should deeply concern New Mexicans,” Geise said. “Now is not the time for on-the-job training. We need a proven leader to help New Mexico families weather these tough times, and none of the Republicans running come close to meeting that challenge.”

What's the problem with this message you ask? Well, it tries to define Lt. Governor Diane Denish as a proven leader. Of course, the only proven elected leadership Lt. Governor Denish has is as the second highest ranking member of the scandal plagued Richardson Administration. Heck, if you factor in the Governor's out of state travel schedule, especially in the last four years, you might even argue that she has significant experience as acting Governor of a scandal plagued administration. Problem is you'd be arguing against Lt. Governor Denish herself:

Denish has said, in an attempt to distance herself from the scandal-plagued Richardson administration, “There is only one governor at a time.”

So, which is it? Is she a proven leader, or someone who spent the last seven years failing to prove leadership? Let's say we give the Lt. Governor the benefit of the doubt and choose the former over the latter. Well, then we have a leader who has proven that she can be at the helm of the most corrupt, financially bankrupt and policy flawed administration in the history of New Mexico.

Our roads are crumbling, our schools are failing and not a week passes without someone tied to the administration getting indicted or resigning in shame. If this is what counts as "proven leadership" in the Democratic Party, then I think you'll find most New Mexicans have just about had enough with the Denish/Richardson brand of proven leadership.

On the other hand, if we are to accept the Lt. Governor's claim that the terrible mismanagement of the public trust belongs to Governor Bill Richardson, then she has a failure to prove leadership problem on her hands. See, over the last seven years, Lt. Governor Denish sat side by side with Governor Richardson and told New Mexicans that all was well in the Land of Enchantment. Now, we all know that all was not well. In fact, as we have spiraled further and further into crisis, one thing has becoming increasingly clear there has been a decisive lack of leadership shown within the ranks of the Richardson Administration.

Racism, Sexism and Ageism

Racism, Sexism and Ageism is apparently what drives today's Democratic Party. We all watched in shocked amazement as the Democrats turned the Obama/Clinton battle into a race versus gender fight.

Now, the Democrat bloggers are attacking Senator McCain because of his age:

Another thing about the ad: McCain just sounds old. His voice while he talks reminds of 60 Minutes' Andy Rooney. When people start contrasting the elderly Arizona Senator against the young Senator from Illinois (Barack Obama), it will be a stark contrast.

Now, I'm under forty, but if I was over 60, I sure would be concerned about the fact that if the Democrats take control, I would be relegated to a second class citizen simply because of my age.

Singing Donkey is Undecided Superdelegate

New Mexico Superdelegates Ignoring Majority

It's interesting to observe as one New Mexico Democratic superdelegate after another comes out in support for Senator Barack Obama (subscriotion). What is interesting about it is that the majority of New Mexicans voting in the record turnout state caucus voted for Senator Hillary Clinton.

New Mexico Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón on Saturday threw his support behind Barack Obama's presidential bid - the 4th New Mexico superdelegate to endorse the U.S. Senator from Illinois.

"He really does represent what the youth in this country want to see in terms of the direction of this country," said the 38-year-old Colon, one of the youngest state party chairs in the nation.

Colon's decision capped months of heavy lobbying by backers of both Obama and his opponent, Hillary Clinton: Colon told the Journal he's received hundreds of phone calls and "thousands" of e-mails since New Mexico's Feb. 5 Democratic presidential caucus on Feb. 5, which Clinton won by a sliver.

Hmm, I believe that "sliver" is called a majority. I wonder what message this sends to that majority?

Who in Their Right Mind?

A couple of days ago, I was made aware of this recent comment by National Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean:

“They can’t become more diverse,” [National Democratic Party Chairman Howard] Dean said. “Who in their right mind, if they were African American or Hispanic or Asian American, if they were gay or lesbian, would join the Republican Party?”

As an American, who also happens to be a registered Hispanic Republican voter in his right mind, I have to tell you I find Chairman Dean's attack on my personal decisions as nothing short of offensive. My guess is that I'm not alone. In fact, I don't need to guess. I know I'm not alone. You see, 23% of registered Hispanic voters identify themselves as Republicans.

According to a Pew Hispanic Center population report, there are over 18 million eligible Hispanic voters in the United States (pdf). In other words, Chairman Dean has called over 4 million eligible Hispanics crazy for being Republican. A tried and proven Democratic strategy under Chairman Dean's leadership - insult those who think different from you.

Lest you think this is nothing more than Republican spin on my part, please take a look at what one liberal blogger has to say about the Clinton's and their approach to minorities:

So, America's first Hispanic governor, Bill Richardson, decided to support Obama and look what the Clintons have done … they've made him into Judas.

Wonder if the bells are going off in America's Hispanic community? If so, do the people understand what the bells are warning against? The bells should be warning the Hispanic community of this simple fact:

The Clintons will ALWAYS love and honor the Hispanic community … as long as the Hispanic community does, says, and votes EXACTLY as the Clintons say they should.

As one Democrat put it, The Clintons are ALWAYS there when they need you.

Go ahead and read that passage again. Only this time substitute "Democrats" for every instance of "Clintons" and the truth becomes painfully clear. The Democrats love to play the race card.

They use it in their primaries against one another, and then after the primaries they try to use it against Republicans. It is a divide and conquer approach to politics based on planting seeds of racial prejudice and distrust nurtured by personal attacks and insults.

The Republican approach is based on appeal to values and principles, not prejudice and hate. That, Chairman Dean, is why I am a red, white and blue Hispanic Republican through and through.

Democratic Tax Policy

Tax policy is often difficult for folks to understand. Considering the actual number of pages involved, that's probably no big surprise:

The complexity of the Tax Code has done nothing but grow since the Federal income tax was first introduced in this body in 1913.

When it was first created, the Tax Code was 400 pages. This year, it is 67,506 pages, nearly a 17,000 percent increase, pretty typical of government math.

Now, because we're inching ever closer to Tax Filing Day, and because we're in a presidential election year, I think it is important to simplify the basic Democratic approach to one aspect of tax policy - tax refunds:

If you don't understand the Democrats' version of tax refunds, maybe this will help explain it:

50,000 people went to a baseball game, but the game was rained out. A refund was then due.

The team was about to mail refunds when a group of Congressional Democrats stopped them and suggested that they send out the ticket refunds based on the Democrat National Committee's interpretation of fairness.

Originally the refunds were to be paid based on the price each person had paid for the tickets. Unfortunately that meant most of the refund money would be going to the ticket holders that had purchased the most expensive tickets. This, according to the DNC, is considered totally unfair. A decision was then made to pay out the refunds in this manner:

• People in the $10 seats will get back $15. After all, they have less money to spend on tickets to begin with. Call it an "Earned Income Ticket Credit." Persons "earn" it by having few skills, poor work habits and low ambition, thus keeping them at entry-level wages.
  
  
• People in the $25 seats will get back $25, because it "seems fair."
  
  
• People in the $50 seats will get back $1, because they already make a lot of money and don't need a refund. After all, if they can afford a $50 ticket, they must not be paying enough taxes.
  
  
• People in the $75 luxury box seats will each have to pay an additional $25 because it's the "right thing to do."
  
  
• People walking past the stadium that couldn't afford to buy a ticket for the game each will get a $10 refund, even though they didn't pay anything for the tickets. They need the most help.
  

Now do you understand?

A hat tip to Maggie Thurber, who appears to have taken it from the March 2008 issue of the Charleston County GOP newsletter.

You Tell Me Which Party is More Open

Not that long ago, I taped an episode of KNME's The Line with former Democratic Party Chairman John Wertheim (Episode 119, Chapter 3). Unfortunately, the day we were taping also happened to be the day that Governor Bill Richardson announced he was pulling out of the Presidential race, so our on air time was greatly reduced with the majority of the show being webcasted.

During a portion of that webcast, John thought he had a pretty good zinger (evident by the smile on his face) about the Democratic Party process being more open and involving than the Republican Party process. I couldn't disagree more, and I think this recent article about the Chaves County Pre-Primary Convention makes my point:

The Democratic Party of Chaves County nominated 32 delegates Wednesday evening, who are to attend the Democratic Party of New Mexico Pre-Primary Nominating Convention to be held March 15 in Rio Rancho, N.M.

A total of 40 delegates from Chaves County in Congressional District 2 are required to attend the convention and help determine which candidates will appear on New Mexico's June 3 primary ballot. Delegates will also consider a platform during the convention, which requires 60 percent of a non-secret vote to be adopted.

Eight of the 40 delegates who are members of the State Central Committee, are automatic delegates.

This means that 20% of the delegate slots are already taken by the party hierarchy. Compare that to the Republican Party in New Mexico where everyone, regardless of their position, has to run to be a delegate, and it is evident, at least in New Mexico, which party is more open to change by grassroot activists.