I have a few things I want to cover in this diary.
- Elections results in yesterday's New Mexico primary
- My experience as a poll worker in that primary
- The Netroots Nation Scholarship program
Perhaps the single most interesting result is that ethically challenged Republican Heather Wilson failed in her attempt to win a nomination to the US Senate. (That's the "woman scorned" of my title.) She is well known in the blogosphere for her tearful "nipplegate" outrage:
"Pajamas" Pete Domenici, who is retiring, stayed neutral in the race, until the last weekend, when he came out for Heather. It was too late to salvage the candidacy of the Air Force Academy graduate who had been his protegé and heir apparent. Tom Udall will be up against Stevan Pearce, who's much more of a wingnut than Wilson. He has been polling strongly against either one of them, and will do better in the North against Pearce than he would have against Wilson. I'm a woman myself, and can get as excited about female candidates as the next person (I originally supported Lt. Gov. for the Senate, but she decided to go for Governor instead, and I support her for that, too). But when it comes down to Udall vs. Wilson for the Senate? Fahgeddabouddit!
Primaries for NM House Seats
We've nominated candidates for all three of the state's House seats, all of which are open this fall. (New Mexico will lose a lot of seniority in the 111th Congress.) Nominees are:
NM-01 (Albuquerque and environs, in the center of the state):
- Martin Heinrich (D), Albuquerque city councilman
- Darren White (R), Bernalillo county sherrif
Heinrich is gonna be a darling of the Netroots, even if you don't all know it yet. White is fairly popular, and this will be a real battle. Martin is a great candidate, and is going to need our help.
NM-02 (roughly, the southern half of the state)
This district is quite a distance from where I live. I don't know a whole lot about it, or about the candidates. IIRC, in the flurry of TV ads last weekend, Tinsley was the one running on the "Seal the Border" platform. This is the last Congressional district along the US-Mexico border held by a Republican, and I love the idea of a "bingo". This will not be easy, but if ever it could be flipped to Democratic, this will be the year. (At this point, I'm not holding my breath about it.) If we don't pull it off, we'll have a freshman oil-and-gas man in the 111th Congress:
NM-03 (roughly, the northern half of the state)
This campaign got uncivil. None of the details matter. NM-03 will be represented by a machine-connected Hispanic (his daddy is Speaker of the NM state legislature), who was also endorsed by the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and lots more. This is a deep blue district. East has been looking for a new job - he's been a Domenici staffer in recent years.
NM - Big Picture
Ever since I noticed that 56% of the state's voters picked a Dem in the 2006 midterm, I've had confidence that we've been turning bluer. Here's some aggregate numbers - all from yesterday's primaries except for super Tuesday Presidential for Dems:
- 151,239 - Democrats in US House primaries
- 149,379 - Dems for President, super Tuesday (big snowstorm)
- 138,302 - Udall for Senate (unopposed)
- 111,302 - Wilson + Pearce for Senate
- 109,285 - Republicans for President
- 107,488 - Republicans in US House primaries
- 94,001 - McCain for President (Paul on ballot)
Also of interest are the total number of votes cast in each House primary by party:
NM-01
NM-02
NM-03
The most interesting thing to me there is that even with a contested Republican Senate primary, there were more Democratic than Republican votes cast in the NM-02 House primary. I take that as a very hopeful sign.
That said, one wonders what yesterday's primary might have been like if the Democratic presidential primary vote hadn't been moved up to February.
Vote Por Uno - One Pollworker's Experience
I was a poll worker yesterday, in one of Taos County's larger precincts. (If it were a state on the national scene, it might be Pennsylvania or Ohio - not quite Texas or California or New York, but close). NM has closed primaries, only those registered as party members 30 days ahead of time can vote. Here's a few anecdotal observations from my experience, and from county wide election results:
- 7 out of 8 voters were Democrats (we are very blue, I think I mentioned)
- No one had a thing to say about McCain (though he did get a few votes)
- Two Republicans changed their voter registration to Democrat (takes effect later, didn't allow them to vote Democrat yesterday).
- One Republican tried to turn his ballot back in, saying "I don't want to vote for any of these". We convinced him to cast one vote for an upopposed Republican so we wouldn't have to do all the paperwork for an uncast ballot.
- One Republican wore an Obama button
- One Republican's granddaughter was a big Obama fan (about 14 yrs. old)
- Republican pollworker said she thought it was time for "change"
- Oldest voter born in 1919, who stayed very close to his wife of 70 years (born 1921), reportedly now suffering from dementia
- Youngest voter - 20 (very few under 30)
- Ten voters borrowed my spare reading glasses so they could read their ballots!!
- 9 voters changed their registration, 5 women due to marital status name changes, 4 men changing to Democratic Party (2 Republicans, 2 independents)
- Not unlike Puerto Rico, our local Republicans are more like Hatfields to the Democrats McCoys, mostly by clan (except for a few relocated Texans). They don't always vote their registration. A lot of who might normally be Republicans register as Dems because it's the only way to choose County Commissioners and the like. Most local offices are decided in the Democratic primaries.
County wide, more votes were cast for the county District Attorney than any other race. Local machine delivered for Lujan in NM-03. Aggregate votes in the county:
- 5742 - District Attorney, Democratic
- 5623 - NM-03 House race (D)
- 5541 - County Clerk (D)
- 5240 - Public Regulatory Commission (D)
- 5220 - Tom Udall, Senate (D) unopposed
- 856 - Republican Senate primary
- 846 - Presidential primary (R)
- 817 - House primary (R)
- 732 - McCain for President (Ron Paul got the rest)
How Paper Trail Voting Works
Election results in 2006 showed great improvements to undervoting (generally seen in predominantly Hispanic & Native American precincts in the past), and "phantom" votes, typically seen in strongly Republican areas in the past. Short version of how our "paper trail" voting system works.
- Confirm machine has zero votes recorded
- Match number of signatures, number of votes recorded on machine, number of ballots used
- All ballots are scanned in, and saved in a locked compartment of machine
- Pollworkers are Dems and Republicans, and all review and sign off of results
- County clerk takes calls all day to consult with voters when there is any question about their registration
- Audits later to make sure results recorded on machine match the ballots (NM doesn't do these soon enough, so we have room for improvement there)
Netroots Nations Scholarships - Last but not least
Last year, kid oakland drew from his knowledge, experience and considerable energy to pull together a scholarship program which sent 19 people to Chicago for Yearly Kos. This year, the baton has been passed to Democracy for America, which is accepting applications for conference registration plus hotel. There are already 92 applicants. Donations (linked by a button on the right side of this page) mean DFA's commitment to 9 scholarships have now extended the number to be awarded to a minumum of 15 (likely more). Considerations in awarding the scholarships will be:
- Diversity - ethnic, age, gender, geography, class, etc. will be really important to enrich the overall mix for all. If you are demographically unusual, especially with an extraordinary story (e.g. someone has nominated the Director of Pretty Bird Woman House for a scholarship), don't be discouraged from applying because there are already a lot of applicants with a lot of votes.
- Contributions - extraordinary research or other contributions.
- Votes on DFA site - only a factor. Do not be discouraged from applying because of the applicants already up with a lot of votes.
Deadline for applications is June 10 - not June 9 as previously posted (due to a delay in the launch, an extra day was added). There's still almost a week to apply.
For those who want to vote - please take the time to look through all the applicants. There's some real gems who haven't got a big organization voting for them. For example, my favorite "bumper sticker slogan" is from an applicant far down in the list:
McCain - Different Puppet, Same Strings
Many of the applicants have links to their "best" blog posts, or other work. If you are tired of the primary contest and candidate diaries, there is a lot of terrific material to be found there. It might be smart to allow some time for this - say this weekend. There's a lot of talent out there, and an array of voices that should arouse a giddy sense of delight in understanding the strength, breadth and depth of our movement.
DFA put up the money to start this off with money for 9 scholarships. I've confirmed this morning that has now increased to a minimum of 15 - certainly more. Looking at the wonderful array of applicants already (with more to come over the next week), I would love to see the number of awards increase. I don't have the resources to make that happen myself, so I'm begging you all to chip in to give what you can (modest contributions of $5 or $10 are more than welcome!!!)
Also, as a supplement, I'll be coordinating donations of frequent flyer miles. Last I checked (and I might not be up to date), the "transfer fees" for partial amounts of miles make that non-cost effective. Only those with enough for a full flight can really help. Several of those were used for last year's scholarship program, where the holder of the miles directly made a reservation for the individual attending the conference. Anyhow, if you have the miles to donate a full flight, or if you have a conference registration to donate (say, if you paid for one, but then were late chosen to present a panel), please contact me directly. Email information to be found on my userpage here on Daily Kos.
One last Netroots Nation note: It looks like there will be a panel featuring some of our New Mexico candidates who prevailed in yesterday's NM primaries. That's something else to look forward to!!!
And thanks to everyone who donated to the YK scholarship last year, and have already helped increased the number of awards for this year. But here's hoping we can do better, and get it about 20 - even up to 30!