{"id":2148,"date":"2007-08-24T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-24T17:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/guv-reaches-out-to-american-indians-hispanics\/"},"modified":"2007-08-24T11:08:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-24T17:08:00","slug":"guv-reaches-out-to-american-indians-hispanics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/guv-reaches-out-to-american-indians-hispanics\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv reaches out to American Indians, Hispanics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> had an opportunity to capitalize on being the most prominent presidential candidate to attend Thursday\u2019s Prez on the Rez<\/a> forum, and he seized it. <\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said the event, the first of its kind on American Indian land, was a pivotal step for American Indians.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt shows that this is in my judgment a step forward, although it is negative and embarrassing that not every candidate is here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cEvery candidate\u201d included the three frontrunners \u2013 Hillary Clinton<\/a>, Barack Obama<\/a> and John Edwards<\/a> \u2013 who all declined invitations. Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was joined at the forum only by Dennis Kucinich<\/a> and Mike Gravel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Southern California<\/st1:place>\u2019s Press Enterprise<\/a> took a look today at what that means for the other candidates, quoting tribal leaders and politicos as saying the decision by the three frontrunners was \u201cunwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt will have an impact. The reality played out here today will have an impact in Indian country,\u201d Frank La Mere, chairman of the Democratic National Committee\u2019s Native American Coordinating Council, told the newspaper. \u201cThere is some fence mending to be done between now and the Iowa<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> caucuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Kalyn Free, president of the group that organized the forum, told the 200 people who attended to \u201cput our money and our votes and our organizing strength behind the candidate that best supports Indian issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

And Robert Martin, chairman of the Morongo tribe of Southern California<\/st1:place>, which hosted the event, said candidates who discounted the influence of tribes were wrong to do so.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThey should take a moment and talk to Al Gore about what a few hundred votes can mean,\u201d the newspaper quoted him as saying. \u201cSome candidates still don\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

You can watch video highlights of the forum by clicking here<\/a>. Technical problems prevented the live broadcasting of the forum on the internet, but the group plans to rebroadcast it later. You can click here<\/a> to learn more as updates are posted.<\/p>\n

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

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> on Thursday also announced his Native Americans for Bill Richardson<\/a> group, obviously designed to draw the support of American Indians.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAs president, I will work to restore the trust between our government and our country\u2019s native peoples. My administration will focus on policies that promote the continued strength, integrity and resiliency of Native Americans,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> states on his Web site. \u201cThe relationship between the federal government and tribes has increasingly come under assault. President Bush\u2019s administration has created an environment that undermines tribal America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>\u2019s forward progress. The attack on tribal sovereignty must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Leadership of the new group includes tribal members from New Mexico<\/st1:state>, California<\/st1:state> and a number of states from Alabama<\/st1:state> all the way to Alaska<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.<\/p>\n

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

A new attempt to reach Hispanics<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Meanwhile, polls have shown that the majority of Hispanics across the nation don\u2019t even realize Richardson<\/st1:city> is Hispanic, and a July survey of Hispanics in Nevada<\/st1:state> found that 58 percent supported Clinton<\/st1:city>, while 14 percent supported Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, 7 percent supported Obama and 5 percent supported Edwards.<\/p>\n

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

In an attempt to change that, Richardson<\/st1:city> announced in Nevada<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> on Thursday a new Hispanic outreach movement, \u201cMi Familia Con Richardson.\u201d<\/a> The campaign is asking families supporting Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> to find five additional supporters and then form a local chapter of Mi Familia Con Richardson. They\u2019ll then be asked to volunteer with Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

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

The Associated Press<\/a> reported that Richardson<\/st1:city> told reporters after the news conference, in Spanish, that, \u201cBecause my name is Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>, many Latinos don\u2019t know I\u2019m Latino.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

A number of prominent Hispanics joined Richardson<\/st1:city> to announce the new group in Nevada<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, where the governor stressed the grassroots nature of the outreach effort.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cMy campaign is about talking to people face-to-face,\u201d he said, according to a news release. \u201cGrassroots programs like Mi Familia con Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> are a great way to get my message out directly to voters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson had an opportunity to capitalize on being the most prominent presidential candidate to attend Thursday\u2019s Prez on the Rez forum, and he seized it. Richardson said the event, the first of its kind on American Indian land, was a pivotal step for American Indians. \u201cIt shows that this is in my judgment […]<\/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-2148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148","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=2148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}