Primary Election Date: 06/05/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

I grew up in a working class neighborhood, the son of a single parent who worked two jobs to survive. I enrolled in Head Start as a child, which taught me that hard work and quality education are the keys to success in life. Today, me, my wife Kim, and son Lucas live in the same Barelas neighborhood where I grew up.

I have a reputation as a vocal progressive and a reformer as a State Senator and former Albuquerque City Councilor. On the Albuquerque City Council, I led the fight to pass sweeping campaign and ethics reforms, a minimum wage increase, a green jobs bill, and was a fierce advocate for smart growth.

As a State Senator, I am known as a passionate advocate for investing in clean energy to create jobs, protecting worker rights, equality, and women’s reproductive rights. I have been endorsed by the Sierra Club and Conservation Voters New Mexico (CVNM) and am one of only three current legislators (out of 112) with a lifetime 100% CVNM rating.

I have served in key positions at both the state and local levels to help grow New Mexico’s economy and create jobs. I was Chairman of the State Economic Development Commission for three years, Assistant Cabinet Secretary for the State Economic Development Department for two years, and led efforts on the Albuquerque City Council to pass a comprehensive local economic development strategy.

Early in my career, I spent time in Washington working as an economist and policy analyst for three federal agencies and on Capitol Hill.

Why Am I Running?

I'm running because I'm deeply concerned that today, the American Dream is under assault. The Tea Party Republicans and their Wall Street and corporate sponsors say that we should live by the law of the jungle, that it’s every person for themself; that it’s okay to let only those who are rich or have political connections decide what’s best for us and our country; that the American Dream of each generation doing better than the one before it is dead. They’re wrong, and we need to fight to rebuild the American Dream.

We believe in a different vision for America. We believe in a country of equal opportunity, where each person has the chance to succeed if they work hard. We believe that America is a community in which we pay forward to the next generation by investing in education, healthcare and the public good, so that businesses can create jobs and hire productive workers. We believe in a society in which those who have worked hard to build America deserve to retire with dignity through programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

We saw during the battles over raising the debt ceiling, reforming the broken healthcare system, holding Wall Street accountable and investing in green jobs… that we could have used more bold progressive warriors in Washington to stand up to Tea Party extremists, health insurance companies, Wall Street and Big Oil.

There will still be big policy fights ahead of us in the coming years. From job creation and tax reform to protecting Social Security and Medicare, we will need Democrats with principles who are warriors for working families. That’s why the last thing we need to send to Washington is a Democrat who is a kinder, gentler version of the Republicans.

That’s why I’m running. As Congressman, I will be a warrior for working families.

As Congressman I will:
• work to create jobs and reduce unemployment through bold investments in our energy, communications and transportation infrastructure;
• end the Bush tax cuts for the rich, close corporate tax loopholes, and hold Wall Street accountable to pay their fair share to help fix the economy;
• fight to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from any cuts;
• promote clean renewable energy and a healthy environment;
• strengthen campaign and ethics laws; and
• honor our veterans by providing jobs, healthcare, education and other support.

Hold Me Accountable!

The top three issues facing my constituents are jobs, access to healthcare and education.

First, I have proposed a New Marshall Plan for American Jobs to massively build or upgrade our telecommunications, transportation and energy infrastructure on the scale of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the Second World War. This will put millions of Americans to work designing and building these critical public investments, but in the long run they will set the table for more private sector jobs by increasing their competitiveness.

Second, I support a Medicare for All healthcare bill that will provide every American access to high quality, affordable healthcare.

Third, I support replacing No Child Left Behind with a more teacher-centered education policy that invests in training and retaining good teachers, rather than punishing poor performing schools and testing kids to death.

My DFA values:

I have developed a reputation as an outspoken progressive reformer who fights for the common good. I ran and won in primaries against establishment-backed conservative Democrat incumbents to win a seat on the Albuquerque City Council and in the State Senate. I continue to be outspoken about my belief that Democrats should do what we say we believe, not what is politically expedient.

I believe that our people-powered campaign and my message backed by my unapologetic progressive record will inspire Democrats to embrace our common political mission: to make our party and our democracy again about "of the people, by the people and for the people." And I'm proud to have put my money where my mouth is: to reduce the influence of powerful special interests in our democracy and hold politicians accountable, I led the fight to pass one of the strongest municipal campaign finance and ethics laws in the country, which has made our city elections publicly financed and created an Inspector General's office to keep City Hall honest.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

1. Our people-powered campaign is powered by more than 12,000 individual donors as of November 11, 2011, the most of any first-time Democratic candidate for Congress in the 2012 cycle. 97% of the contributions are less than $100.

Most campaigns today are designed to raise large check contributions from few wealthy individuals and spend them mostly on TV ads. We have deliberately designed our campaign to be powered by a growing list of ordinary people generously affording what they can because they share my passion for building a strong progressive caucus in Congress.

2. My in-house grassroots organizing effort is complemented by strong support from several labor, environmental and progressive organizations with large membership in the district or ability to amplify our message and organizing muscle. These allies include the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, MoveOn.org Political Action, AFSCME, Teamsters, Sierra Club, Conservation Voters New Mexico, and many others.