Javier Gonzales
Traveling the state over the past few months has renewed my optimism for 2012 through my interaction with our active, grassroots Democrats who are all ready and geared up to win next November.
In cafeterias and community centers, high school gyms and bingo halls, the people I meet are energized, active, and ready to take the fight to fight to Susana Martinez, Heather Wilson, John Sanchez and the Republicans whose dangerous ideas threaten our future.
An old friend from Hobbs once told me that “the sun doesn’t shine on the same dog’s ass all the time,” and we learned the hard truth behind that last November. Facing a Republican wave of historic proportions and an economy that hit bottom at the worst possible time, we suffered some serious losses, and no one is more disappointed than me.
But in spite of overwhelming odds against us, our mettle was tested and we came together to re-elect Martin Heinrich to a seat that Republicans had held for 40 years. That had never been done before. Congressman Ben Ray Luján ran and won strong in our northern district.
To give you some perspective on the size of the GOP wave in 2010 – 19 states, many of them strong Democratic states, lost their legislatures to Republicans. Fortunately, we were able to hold our majorities here.
Hector Balderas, Gary King and James Lewis are stronger than ever, and Ray Powell took back the State Land Office, a seat Republicans had held for eight years. In our best fund-raising year ever, we put $2.3 million into races in all 33 counties.
Undaunted
As I look ahead to 2012, I see a Democratic Party undaunted by its setbacks. We are leaner, stronger, and smarter for the lessons we learned, and poised for major victories. The stakes could not be higher. During the legislative session in Santa Fe, New Mexicans got a clear view of the stark contrast between Republicans and Democrats, and the 2012 election cycle will be a contest to see who is serious about putting politics aside to propose solutions to our challenges and who is interested only in wedge issue politics that divide us against each other.
In Santa Fe, Democrats were focused like a laser beam on jobs, education, ethics and preserving our land and water. Susana Martinez sadly misspent her historic first legislative session pushing wedge issue after wedge issue.
She was elected on a clear promise to New Mexicans: to focus on jobs. But we have yet to see a single job-creating proposal from her administration, and our state and its struggling families are paying the price.
She went out of her way to destroy incentives that created thousands of high-paying jobs, created countless educational opportunities and generated millions of dollars into our state’s struggling economy.
Susana Martinez hasn’t taken the leap as her role as a prosecutor to serving the people in the highest elected office in our state. One could perhaps argue that the dialogue over driver’s licenses for foreign nationals and voter ID have a place in public discourse, but no serious New Mexican is going to buy that either should take priority over the economy. Yet that’s where she put them.
While Susana puts the livelihoods of thousands of New Mexicans on the back burner, Democrats are busy proposing incentives and supporting the types of education that will create jobs and strengthen the economy – not just in the short-term but for generations to come.
Seven priorities
For all of these reasons, we are focused on electing a Democrat to follow in the footsteps of our great Senator Jeff Bingaman, re-electing President Barack Obama, increasing our majorities in the State House and Senate, and winning back the 2nd Congressional District.
To that end, I have seven priorities for 2012:
- Re-Elect President Obama
- Hold Senator Jeff Bingaman’s Seat
- Take back CD-2 and keep CD1 and CD3 blue
- Increase our majorities in the state House and Senate
- Every county counts. Implement my 33-county strategy to build local party infrastructure
- Challenge Gov. Martinez’s assaults on New Mexico’s working families, educators and environment
- Recruit Democrats to challenge every Republican running for office. No Republican gets a free ride.
The Democratic Party – the people’s party – is alive and well, and ready to take the fight to Susana Martinez and the rest of the GOP every day between now and the 2012 election.
I’m running for chair because our values – fairness, equality, family, community – are the values of New Mexico, and when more Democrats hold office, the impact on the lives of working people is real and it is positive.
Join me in my candidacy for re-election as Democratic Party chairman.
Gonzales is chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico and is seeking another term.