FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 22, 2024
CHAPARRAL, NM – The scheduled vote to select a replacement for House District 53 (HD 53) by the Democratic Party of New Mexico’s State Central Committee (SCC) isn’t coming without some questionable decisions. Simply put, they’re not following their own by-laws.
In an effort to push back the vote a few more days before the August 27th deadline to get prospective candidates names on the ballot and to give the residents of Chaparral a fair opportunity to hear from the candidates, CAFe Accion was told that that was not possible.
After several phone calls and conversations with several different members from the SCC and the Democratic party itself, there were several different pieces of information shared that were inconsistent.
According to the by-laws, “3.4.1 – Open Public Meetings: All public meetings at all levels of the DNM are open to all members of the DPNM regardless of their status, as defined in Article I, Rule 3.4.”
In addition to that by-law, “3.4.2 – Meetings of the DPNM at all levels: shall be publicized fully and in such a manner as to assure timely notice to all party members.”
Objectives of DPNM candidate forums as listed in their by-laws – “to facilitate an open and transparent exchange of ideas and information between candidates and party members.”
“To promote fairness and impartiality in the forum’s organization, ensuring that all candidates are given equal opportunities.”
There are eight members of the State Central Committee (this information is also inconsistent and unclear about how many members are actually on the committee) who will be able to vote for the replacement Democratic candidate at the meeting; the Democratic party of New Mexico has declined to release the names of the eight members, due to “privacy concerns”. In an August 7th article from the Source NM, Democratic party spokesperson, Daniel Garcia said he did not know if the August 22nd meeting would be open to the public. The same spokesperson for the party, quoted in a different Source NM article published on August 22nd, confirmed that all of the state Democratic Party members making the selection live in Doña Ana County. None of the voting members live in Otero County.
This piece of information published in an earlier article, does not align with the information that was shared with CAFe Accion. CAFe Accion staff were informed that the August 22nd meeting at 6:00pm would be a “candidate forum” that would not be open to the public, but available via zoom, and that the vote for candidates would not occur until 1:30pm Friday. Which is inconsistent with information relayed from an August 22nd Source NM article that noted the meeting & vote would occur August 22nd at 6:00pm.
CAFe Accion calls for more transparency with this vote, since the public is not being properly represented according to the SCC’s own bylaws, there are no voting members from Otero County, and for communicating misinformation. CAFe Accion has not endorsed any of the candidates and is seeking real transparency from the party because its leaders that live in Otero county feel disenfranchised. CAFe Accion is building and creating a vehicle for leaders to have a fair and equal opportunity to choose their next candidate as they should have been able to do if the party was following their own bylaws. Chaparral has been historically disenfranchised and the information has not been properly communicated to the public.
We must also note that most residents in Chaparral had no idea that Dr. Jon Hill had passed away or that the party had decided the process to select these eight delegates to represent them in voting a new candidate. CAFe Accion wants to send condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Jon Hill.
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CAFé Acción is a power building grassroots 501c4 organization working to build independent political power for and with historically marginalized communities across Southern New Mexico.