EMILY'S List Gets It Wrong... Again-- This Time In Albuquerque, New Mexico

People who watch carefully, lost faith in EMILY'S List, once a trusted component of the progressive coalition, long ago. In their rush to endorse conservatives they wound up going too far in 2008, pushing a virulent anti-Semite from the Harold Ford camp, Nikki Tinker, against one of the most progressive incumbents in the history of Memphis, Steve Cohen. By the end of the race, with EMILY'S List donors threatening to bail on them, they withdrew their endorsement (on the morning of Election Day!) Because of early voting, EMILY'S List supporters cast ballots for this monstrosity and she wound up with almost 20% of the vote. It might have been a good time for EMILY'S List to take a time out and reassess what they've become. Instead they doubled down on recruiting a supporting conservative women to run against progressives. Often they find wealthy donors looking for a hobby to run for office. And more often than not these candidates have nothing whatsoever to recommend them for high office other than their checkbooks and a supposed ability to attract Republicans, like Stacey Lawson in Marin County, California.

But today there's another congressional race being decided-- this one in NM-1 (Albuquerque)-- with EMILY'S List playing the worst possible role. And it pits them against progressive women, like Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME), who have always been EMILY'S List backers. We touched on this briefly a month ago. The progressive movement in America is firmly behind state Senator Eric Griego-- and that includes both Edwards and Pingree, as well as Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairmen Raúl Grijalva and Keith Ellison and virtually all of the progressive organizations from MoveOn,org, DFA, PCCC, Peace Action, PDA, Sierra Club, League of Conservative Voters, (and Blue America) to labor unions like AFSCME, American Federation of Teachers, Communications Workers of America, NEA, National Nurses United, UFCW, the Teamsters and on and on. But once again, EMILY'S List is the skunk at the garden party, backing a corrupt and untrustworthy hack who is more likely to either throw the primary to conservative Marty Chavez or the general election to Janice Arnold-Jones, deranged the Republican, than to actually ever win herself.

Yesterday Griego's campaign launched a series of ads focused on reminding New Mexico voters, in the closing hours of the primary campaign, that Griego is “the one Democrat who will fight back for us” in Congress.

The positive closing ads the Griego campaign is launching today will be targeted broadly and focus specifically on Sen. Griego’s bold progressive record of fighting to create jobs and protect to the environment.

Some of the ads feature prominent local women leaders highlighting Griego’s courage and record as a progressive fighter for women, teachers, and working families, like this one. These ads will directly target the women voters who will play a key role in deciding Tuesday’s primary and who, according to last week’s Albuquerque Journal poll, already favor Griego.

“We need to send more people to Congress with backbone... to stand by our children, our seniors, our veterans, and our working families...and that’s Eric Griego,” noted Christine Trujillo, President of New Mexico’s American Federation of Teachers, who appears in the ads. “Eric Griego is the clear choice for teachers, parents and children.”

“There's no more steadfast supporter of women and women's issue [than Eric Griego]-- particularly on the right to choose,” said State Senator Dede Feldman, who is featured in the ads documenting Griego’s leadership role in protecting choice in New Mexico.

“Senator Griego has... voted and led the committee into resisting bills like parental notification and others issues that really would be damaging to women... His is a real profile in courage. He has stood up to a conservative democratic leadership and... he has given many of us the courage to go on," she added.

LaDonna Harris, a Native American community activist in Albuquerque and president of Americans for Indian Opportunity, also appears in the ad. In a recent email to friends and supporters, Harris urged New Mexicans outraged by recent House Republican efforts to ensure that the Violence Against Women Act doesn’t include protections for Native American women to support Griego on Tuesday.

“I’ve been watching Eric for a long time-- as he stood up against anti-woman forces in the State Senate and passed public financing on the City Council. I have long admired his tenacity and his courage, and I know he will not waiver in his convictions” in Congress, said Harris in the message.

Meanwhile, the EMILY'S List candidate, Michelle Lujan Grisham, used her longstanding positions in state government to move into a situation where she could sell her influence for profit, which brings up some questions about her character. Her firm, Delta Consulting, received a no-bid contract from the Health Department, the agency she ran-- but that doesn't sound any alarms at EMILY'S List at all. It gets Republicans in a hopeful frame of mind though. Through the firm, she has made quite a lot of money from Delta's contract with the New Mexico Insurance Pool. It comes down to is a person whose motivation for public service is questionable. Once out of government, she immediately sought to capitalize on her position by becoming a lobbyist and securing contracts from the sectors where she had worked. Perfect scenario-- if you're looking for more of the same revolving door corruption in DC that EMILY'S List has become an integral part of.


UPDATE: CA-2-- The Writer Behind "Who Is Stacey Lawson"

Another of the most dreadful of the EMILY'S List picks this cycle, as we mentioned above, is carpetbagger, one-percenter and political hobbyist Stacey Lawson. Political activist Paul Andersen outed himself yesterday as the mastermind behind the website that has been the best place to find all the facts on Lawson.

As a long-time politico on the North Coast (some may remember RiggsWatch, which was a website I set up in the mid-90′s to track former Congressman Frank Riggs’ actions in Congress), I follow politics in the region closely.

The 2nd Congressional District is a unique region of the nation and we need to be represented by someone who has a stake and vested interest in our community. Over the decades we have been ably represented by the likes of Don Clausen, Barbara Boxer, Doug Bosco, Lynn Woolsey and Mike Thompson.

This whole endeavor started because I was interested in how someone who’s a complete unknown could raise so much money-- which in today’s day and age makes her an instant contender among a group of candidates that actually have significant governmental experience.

Stacey Lawson has barely lived in this district for three years. She has no public service experience in our community. She doesn’t even own a house, instead renting a mansion in her current location of San Rafael. Who had even heard of Stacey Lawson before last fall?

With a strong political research background I took it upon myself to do some digging. This is actually the type of research journalists used to do, but unfortunately there aren’t any journalists that do this at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat (unless you’re declared an enemy of the editorial board, like Michael Allen).

I deliberately remained anonymous because I knew the website and my efforts would get more publicity that way. And it worked-- the Press Democrat made more of an issue about who was behind the site than what the site actually said. This publicity generated many more hits on the site than I imagine would have happened otherwise, which in turn spread this information further.

As a professional political researcher, I ensured that everything on the staceylawson.info website could be verified through the public record. I utilized Lexis and online research to find out about her failed management at Chelsea Henry, her deleted Huffington Post blog and StaceyTV videos, her deep ties to her guru Dattreya Siva Baba and the mythology of her upbringing and business experience. There are no unsubstantiated facts on the site-- everything is attributed.

As to the issue of whether the website is permissible under federal election law, I can assure you it is. The maximum amount an independent person or organization can spend in advocacy or opposition for a candidate without having to file with the FEC is $250 (incorrectly stated as $1000 in the Press Democrat editorial). Thus far I have spent $200 on Google Adwords and $5 on the domain name. The website hosting is free.

This effort has been a purely voluntary one on my part-- I have not sought nor expect any remuneration. In the interests of full disclosure, I worked on Susan Adams’ Congressional campaign from August 2011 to the beginning os April 2012. I left for a variety of personal and political reasons. I want to state clearly that the Adams campaign had no knowledge of my activities with the “Who Is Stacey Lawson?” website.

As with anything involving politics, the best course is to “follow the money.”

As it turned out, Stacey Lawson has her own personal fortune from her well-timed sale of a failing company during the heyday of Silicon Valley in the late 1990′s when a company losing money was actually considered a winning proposition. This also allowed her to ingratiate herself with wealthy benefactors such as investment bankers and venture capitalists. She also has significant ties to the well-funded new-age community through her guru.

This is all reflected in the fact that fully 80% of her money comes from outside the 2nd Congressional District and nearly half from out of state. 70% of her money comes from people who have contributed the maximum $2,500 to her primary election. Nearly 60 people have actually contributed the maximum of $5,000 for her primary and potential general election campaigns.

Because she is such an unknown, we really don’t know what to expect from her which makes her funding sources so important. We don’t know what she has pledged to the high-tech and investment banking industries that are funding her campaign. The Stacey Lawson campaign is unfortunately a prime example of the power of money in politics, which I think most people would agree is one of the prime reasons we’re in the mess we’re in.

Wealthy newcomers always misjudge the environment in which they are entering, probably due to their ignorance of how politics works and their over-inflated sense of self generated from their success in the private sector.

What they fail to recognize is that the political arena is not a boardroom. The Congressperson for the 2nd Congressional District is the people’s representative in Congress. They should expect to be vetted thoroughly. Every other serious candidate in the race has gone through the same thing.

I'll just leave off with a reminder to all DWT readers in Northern California: Please vote for Norman Solomon today-- and please persuade some of your friends o do likewise. There's no reason why this district shouldn't have the best Member of Congress anywhere... right?