Picnic With Congressman Martin Heinrich

Today Congressman Heinrich stopped by Ridgecrest Park in Southeast Albuquerque to talk with local voters about his support of healthcare reform. Around thirty active voters show up which is a good indicator that people are beginning to tire of this subject and accept that there will be a healthcare reform bill very soon and that it will have a public option include within the bill.

Right now the concentration is on getting the U.S. Senate to support the public option and to get older senators to understand that now is the time to enact they type of legislation. Too many of our federal senators are like Senator Jeff Bingaman who does not realize how much support and pressure that the voting public can apply to our federal government to pass legislation which will decrease healthcare cost in this country.

Congressman Heinrich also talked about protecting our environment and reform to the educational system. The congressman had good news on both fronts that has been overshadowed by the healthcare reform bill debate as of late. Community Colleges are getting increased funding at a time when state budgets are being cut and more is being done to protect national lands.

Other candidates that showed up for the picnic were State Appeals Court Judge Linda Vanzi. She along with Judge Timothy Garcia and Judge Robert Robles will be running for reelection in 2010.

Also there was Ray Powell and Sandy Jones both of which are running to take back our land commissioner position so that both education and our environment are protected for Republicans who have done nothing but harm our environment and educational system over the past few years.

Mayoral candidate Richard Romero sent flyers to the picnic and a representative and Mayor Chavez just did not appear to want the votes in this area of the city. Both candidates were invited to the picnic. I personally invited the mayor myself. I am beginning to wonder what party he belongs to in this city since I never see him at any party event unless he is running for reelection and/or someone very important is attending the event. I guess he should have checked the invitation for who the guest speaker was for this event.

Amazing how our mayor spends so very little time with active democrats in this city that is why I don‘t know him very well. On the other hand Richard Romero works very hard to support the Democratic Party and its core values. You would think that a local city leader would support his party unless of course he really does not want to get reelected? The mayor did take his own sweet time even announcing his run for mayor,s office this year and he even said that he was not sure if he wanted to run again.

Ward 19A is now beginning to become more of an active group and will be building toward the 2010 governor’s race in the hopes of keeping New Mexico a blue state. At this point in time to do anything else would only give the Republican Party a opportunity to further harm this state.