I started writing letters to the editor when I was in grade school but I never wrote one for a politician until today. What happened?
Steve Pearce, the guy who might win (back) the district I'm from went full birther and wouldn't admit that he thought Obama was a citizen until 3 days after the story broke. So, Mr. Pearce, thank you for finally giving me enough of a reason to try to get people to vote against you.
Below you'll find my just less than 300 words I just submitted to the Las Cruces Sun-News. We'll see if it sneaks into publication or not. I intended to address moderates and conservatives, please let me know if you have good ideas on what I should have done differently to better serve that goal.
Two years ago, southern New Mexico voters were given two options for whom to elect to represent us in the U.S. House. I, like a majority of voters, picked Harry Teague to represent us, because I believed a united Democratic Congress and White House would hasten the end of the Bush Recession. Since then, Rep. Teague has made votes which I as a liberal have disagreed with. However, I believe he recognizes that southern New Mexico has a kaleidoscope of viewpoints; a majority of us did vote for McCain in 2008, after all. In three particular cases, Rep. Teague has shown that he is a moderate Democrat who is representing all of his constituents, not just those of his party. In addition to voting for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which has directly financed 6200 jobs in New Mexico, Teague also sponsored amendments for ARRA which provided better transparency at the Recovery.gov website. Before voting for the American Clean Energy and Security Act to promote U.S. energy independence, Rep. Teague added an amendment which will help protect oil refinery jobs in rural areas. While pushing for the Affordable Health Care for America Act to increase health insurance coverage for all Americans, Rep. Teague voted for the Stupak-Pitts amendment which prohibited federal funding for abortions except under stringent criteria. According to analysis by Howard Rosenthal and Keith Poole, Rep. Teague ranks among one of the more conservative Democrats within the 111th House, with only 20 Democrats more conservative. Rep. Teague’s five pieces of legislation which have passed the House (H.R. 4168, 4307, 4592, 4614, and H.Res. 498) have done so because of broad bipartisan support. Rep. Teague has served southern New Mexico well in his first 21 months and I hope you will vote to re-elect him.