Sex, Lies, and Politics

What is sexual harassment? harassment (typically of a woman) in a workplace, or other professional or social situation, involving the making of unwanted sexual advances or obscene remarks.

In the political arena sex has been a major problem. Men in politics have the personality traits of outgoing, aggressive, and controlling. Women in politics also have these same traits. It is nothing new for a woman to complain about unwanted sexual comments or advances by a candidate. The Republican Party learned to weaponize this issue to bring down leading candidates years ago. Never have I seen it done by people in the same party until this campaign season. 

I am a citizen journalist. I have been covering female political topic and events for over ten years now. I strongly believe in covering issues that matter to women in today’s political world. I admit to being a Democrat. When I first started blogging there were few women in the field and we were not well respected because we were women. In all my years covering events and topics never once has a candidate asked me to bury a story or just not cover it, because it might hurt their political changes. That is up, until now. 

Deb Haaland, a candidate for Congressional District 1, did call me and ask me to just let it go. To bury this story and give the women in question her free five minutes of fame without comment or inspection. I told her I can’t do that but I would like a formal statement of your side of these events. To date I have not received one. I felt that her request violated my first amendment rights as a citizen journalist. I will not be voting for or supporting this candidate anytime in the future. I told her to stand up and fight these alleged allegations. This is about more than just losing a few votes. 

#metoo movement is not going away anytime in the near future. It is cleaning house of men in powerful positions who feel they can behave in grossly inappropriate ways toward women. Washington, DC is ripe with this problem in the halls of government and we need representatives who will standup forcibly in defense of women. Powerful men that sexually harass women are not afraid to threaten women to protect their positions in power. We don’t need someone who will put their own political goals before the rights of women or men.  

As for the incident in question. Last week Nicole Bagg held a press conference aided by Kathleen Burke to accuse lead congressional candidate Deb Haaland of intently ignoring a sexual harassment complaint made to her. She alleged that she was prevented from talking with then party chairwomen Haaland by two male staffers. My first reaction to this press conference was to investigate the claims and review my own information before writing a blog on this very important claim. I sent out request from all the people involved and the candidates I considered top tier in this race. I did receive a reply for Pat Davis which I will be printing at a later date. I still want to give the other candidates more time to respond to this very important topic and how they would handle similar complaints once in office. I do applaud candidate Davis for replying so quickly to my request.  

 

After talking with individuals at the event and reviewing my own photos I can find no proof that Nicole Bagg ever approached any staffer at the event on October of 2016. I was personally at the event and was taking pictures. Since Ms. Bagg was with a group that was causing a disruption in the meeting I was watching their interaction with the staffers and the chairwomen very closely just in case they turned violent. I had been alerted by the presents of police in the hall that something was amiss from the very start when I walked in. I even approached one of the female staffers and asked her why police were in the hall and if they were expecting trouble. I spoke with Robert Lara who was one of the staffers alleged to have prevented Ms. Bagg from speaking directly with the chairwomen. He states firmly that at no time did Ms. Bagg attempt to approach him or any other staffer to either formally or informally report a case of harassment to the party. My photos and other eye witness accounts support his view of the events.

Why should this matter? Well first of all other women did go to the next chairperson of the party and report sexual harassment by the individual Ms. Bagg claims also harassed her. The party chairman resigned because he failed to appropriately address those complaints. I will not name those individuals out of respect for the privacy of the victims. I am very disturbed that Ms. Bagg in her press conference may have giving too much information about the other victims so as to out them to the public. As a citizen journalist we try to always respect the privacy of women who make sexually harassment claims while trying to report the facts of the case.  

Next the male staffers of the party should be exonerated of all wrong doing because these types of false allegations can do damage to a person reputation. To not address this issue is as bad as not addressing a complaint of harassment in that it makes victims out of innocent staffers. 

Lastly is the fact that an insider group lead by Kathleen Burke has weaponized this type of claim by a victim two years later to attack a lead candidate in her own party is not surprising in the least. However, it is very disturbing to say the least.  Ms. Burke was photographed outside with Jill Stein at the National Presidential Democratic Convention because her democratic candidate did not get the party’s endorsement for president. Ms. Burke has been training individuals in an attempt to take over the leadership of the State Democratic Party of New Mexico in order to place herself in control of the party. She has made it clear that anyone that supported Clinton in the past election is not welcome in her vision of the party. This of course includes Deb Haaland.  

Money and Politics in New Mexico

I have been reading a book written by a local former state senator. She raised a question that I think needs addressing. Why is it that people hate government but still like their local representative? 

The answer to that is staring every politician in the face and they refuse to see it. The simple answer is money. After the U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Citizen United politics became a blood sport that is all about dialing for dollars.

Freedom of speech is only for the rich and large corporations and organizations that can afford lobbyists. I have been told by one politician that my personal option does not matter to him unless I can back it up with a large organization that can affect his election chances. He of course is one of my least favor people right now and I will do nothing to support him in office. He will not even talk to me at this point because I refuse to support his lobbyists and rich friends that have him making rookie mistakes in office. Sad but in today’s political world this is how it is for elected officials. They do not care about or represent the public. Their closes friends are lobbyist and rich people who hand them large checks.

Normal people are voting with their feet by not showing up at the polls. Normal people don’t have the money to give every candidate large sums of money. The politicians never see normal people any longer and they don’t interact with them either. Gone are the days of people like Former Governor Bill Richardson who prided himself on how many hands he could shake and how many hugs he could give out during a campaign. The public loved him because he took the time to talk and listen to voters at large open meetings when they did not have to pay for the privilege to speak with him.  His election results were in the 75 to 80 percent rate at the time. Turnout for the state was very high because people felt like they knew him and would show up to support him. 

Now many politicians will take offense at the suggestion that lobbyists pay for their votes. The sad truth of the matter is that lobbyists don’t give money to people that they judge will not be in favor of their issues. It is not about quality of these elected officials but will they support the interest of the lobbyists. The politicians may think that money given to them does not affect their votes but they would never get the money to be elected in the first place if they did not support the issues of the people paying their way into government. “You have to dance with those that brought you to the party.” And if you don’t then you don’t get their money next time you run for election. 

Politicians are not talking to people with different views on these issues any longer unless they take to time to talk with someone like me. I know my state senator considers me a trouble maker because I am not one of his close friends and yes I am not one of those people who support his lobbyists interest. In some cases, far from it. I do however support his town hall meeting strongly and I am glad that he takes the time to have them. The turnout has be great. Voters are hungry for contact with their elected representatives.

Most politicians are forced to get out and campaign during their early years so local people do see them and when they do door to door campaigning to get elected the first time before they attract the attention of lobbyist then the public gets to know them. Some of these politicians will hold open town halls or send letters that promote some of the good they try to do for their communities so they do develop some goodwill in those communities. But anyone outside their voting district will not even get a call back.  

So the answer to the former state senator’s question is simple. If you have not relationship with an elected official and they continually vote against your needs and wants, then why on earth would you approve of their performance? Relationships with the voters require time and energy that most elected officials don’t feel they need to expend.  After all they are too busy spending time with their friends the lobbyist who paid their way into office.  For anyone running for office for the first time I strongly suggest that you hold free events and make sure the general public knows about them. Then and only then when you become popular with the public will the money start coming in from the lobbyist.