{"id":2085,"date":"2007-08-09T16:11:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-09T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/are-the-frontrunners-giving-up-on-the-indian-vote\/"},"modified":"2007-08-09T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-09T22:11:00","slug":"are-the-frontrunners-giving-up-on-the-indian-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/are-the-frontrunners-giving-up-on-the-indian-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Are the frontrunners giving up on the Indian vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It appears as if the three frontrunners for the Democratic nomination for president may be abandoning the American Indian vote to Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Only Richardson, Dennis Kucinich<\/a> and Mike Gravel<\/a> have confirmed their attendance on Aug. 23 at the Prez on the Rez<\/a> forum, the first on Indian land in the history of the United States<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>. It will be held on the Morongo Band of Mission Indians\u2019 reservation in California<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> at 4:30 p.m. MST on that day.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton<\/a> has refused an invitation. Though American Indian groups have been pushing for months, the other four candidates have not responded to invitations.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

They should attend.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cNo major presidential campaign event has ever come to Indian Country,\u201d Morongo Tribal Chairman Robert Martin said in a news release. \u201cThis represents a historic opportunity for this country\u2019s first Americans to take a direct role in the future of America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> by holding a national-level forum for presidential candidates. We couldn\u2019t be more proud to make history for Indian Country by hosting this extraordinary event.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s news release was perhaps designed to pressure others to agree to attend. But their silence speaks volumes. I realize American Indians haven\u2019t historically voted in large numbers, but what better way to encourage them to vote than to tell them they matter by attending the forum?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As a congressman and governor, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has long had good relations with Indian tribes, and many have all but endorsed him for president. He has promised to create a federal, cabinet-level secretary of Indian affairs and appoint an American Indian to fill the position, if elected.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

George Hardeen, communications director for the office of the president and vice president of the Navajo Nation, told me recently that Richardson\u2019s record \u201cis one that native people could clearly support (in a presidential race) without question.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Maybe that would happen anyway, but unless Barack Obama<\/a> and John Edwards<\/a> agree to attend or Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> changes her mind, that\u2019s exactly what will happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears as if the three frontrunners for the Democratic nomination for president may be abandoning the American Indian vote to Gov. Bill Richardson. Only Richardson, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel have confirmed their attendance on Aug. 23 at the Prez on the Rez forum, the first on Indian land in the history of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}