If you live in Albuquerque, you may or may not know there’s a School Board election in progress right now – early voting runs through next Saturday (2/4), and the final day of voting is Tuesday, February 7. As we all know, school board elections tend to get just about the lowest turnout, but there’s a lot at stake, especially these days…and as it turns out, that’s especially true for this year’s election in Albuquerque!
This is the first time I’ve known about a school board election before the vote happens, so I’m still finding my way around it myself. But some good information popped up on the Book of Face for several of our local Indivisible groups, and I wanted to share it here for any Albuquerque-area Kossacks who could help with GOTV or even donate to the progressive candidates.
Here’s the big picture
Last June, after months of contentious debate, the Albuquerque Public School (APS) School Board voted 6 – 1 to adopt a “Gender Identity and Expression” nondiscrimination directive. (Hallelujah! How did I not know this had happened? Clearly I haven’t been very tuned in to local issues!!)
However. In this election, 4 of the 7 board seats are up for election – and for each seat, at least one of the 4 – 6 candidates is affiliated with the Tea Party (or with our oh-so-charming Governor, who previously funded the candidacy of the single board member who voted against the directive.) Clearly we need to keep the Tea Party off the school board for lots of reasons, but the rights of our LGBTQ kids are at stake in this election!
Each seat also has a progressive candidate as well, endorsed by the teachers’ union and a local progressive PAC. The union is coordinating volunteers for phone banking, and at least a couple of the candidates have their own nationbuilder page where you can volunteer or donate.
Obviously school boards address lots of other issues as well, but right now it’s critical that we HELP ENSURE THAT TRANSGENDER KIDS CONTINUE TO FEEL SAFE IN ALBUQUERQUE SCHOOLS!!!
Here’s what you can do
(Apologies for the funky formatting...I wrote this in Word, and some of the numbers and indents didn’t exactly carry over...)
- IF YOU LIVE IN ALBUQUERQUE, take a look at the map at www.aps.edu/..., or go to the My Voter Information link at www.bernco.gov. Your school board district is near the bottom of the list (it looks like ALBUQUERQUE PUB SCH BD 0X).
Elections are being held in Districts 3, 5, 6, and 7, so if you live in one of those districts, READ UP ON THE CANDIDATES AND TALK TO YOUR NEIGHBORS!! Oh, and BE SURE TO VOTE!!
- Voter guides and information on all the candidates can be found here:
- Official questionnaires and links to candidate forums: www.aps.edu/...
- Albuquerque Teachers Federation endorsements: atfunion.org/...
- ProgressNow NM/Progressive Champions PAC endorsements and Progressive Voters Guide: progressivechampions.com/... (ATF and Progressive Champions endorsed the same candidates.)
- Several of the endorsed candidates have nationbuilder pages. (They may also have FB pages; please look them up if you’re interested J)
- IF YOU LIVE IN THE ALBUQUERQUE METRO AREA, whether your district has an election this year or not, VOLUNTEER TO HELP WITH GOTV!!!
- Contact Robin Gibson, 505-681-1721 or robinaftnm at gmail dot com, especially to volunteer in the off-hours. They’ll be at the office from 10 to 5 this weekend and next, so people are welcome any time! (See the brochure below.)
- Check each candidate’s nationbuilder or FB page to connect directly with the campaigns. Each page has information about phonebanking and “drive and knock” opportunities.
- WHEREVER YOU LIVE, CONSIDER DONATING to one of the endorsed candidates. Donations links are on the nationbuilder pages as well.
- GET THE WORD OUT to your Albuquerque area friends. This one is really important!!!
NOTE: There are multiple candidates for each seat, and I haven’t personally read up on all of them – and the seat for my district isn’t on the ballot this year. With this crowded of a field, however, I think it’s really important to rally support behind a single candidate so we don’t split the anti-Tea Party vote, and I’m willing to give a lot of weight to the endorsements by these two organizations. That said, I fully support anyone taking an interest in this election learning all they can about all the candidates and supporting the one they feel most comfortable with!
About me: I usually hear about school board elections after the fact and promise myself I’ll be more aware next time. This year I’m really working on paying LOTS of attention to local politics, so I knew about the election ahead of time and wanted to be involved and actually make a difference. Along with volunteering, I figured it would be a great topic for my first diary ever, after, oh, 10 years of lurking & sporadic commenting!
