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A humbling challenge to keep fighting for you
Martin Heinrich
Heinrich, who defeated Republican Jon Barela last week, reflects on what his victory means
Though last Tuesday’s national result was a difficult one to comprehend, it wasn’t simply an indiscriminate wave whereby an anxious public swept aside the party in power. Within the larger trend, we saw smaller narratives emerge.
By the end of the night, one in particular became clear: Those of us who won did so by having the courage to stand by our legislative decisions – to run on, and not away from, our records.
This has been a time of great challenge for our nation. But even in the face of such uncertainty, leaders on both sides of the aisle must resist the temptation to frighten a jittery public with extreme rhetoric. Now is a time for reconciliation and reason, not repudiation.
Republicans may have taken back the House, but they’re no more popular than Democrats. Together, we need to rebuild the public’s trust in government and continue the hard work of economic recovery that began two years ago.
And, yes, I believe compromise is possible. The cynics on cable TV might not think so, and they may have a few sound bites from the fringe to back up their punditry. But politics doesn’t happen at the fringe. Republicans know the American people won’t tolerate a government shutdown, and we know we can’t pass job-saving legislation without their help.
On tax cuts for families and small businesses, on cutting deficit spending, on lowering our nation’s debt, on benefits for veterans, and even on immigration, we will find a way. We will pass on a more prosperous nation than we inherited.
Know that I consider this victory a humbling challenge to keep fighting for you and for your families. My wife Julie and I are so grateful for your commitment to the hard working people of central New Mexico and to our nation’s democracy, and we thank you for all your help and support.
Heinrich, a Democrat, represents New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District in Congress.
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I know exactly what the healthcare reform is…I read the legislation…as could anyone who has internet access. And I have read several expert analyses of it as well. I am very happy that President Obama and Nancy Pelosi and the democrats have stood up for uninsured Americans who have often had to choose between bankruptcy and life.
And private sector jobs continue to go up under President Obama…in fact, as soon as he passed the stimulus package, the loss of private sector jobs slowed dramatically and they’ve been increasing since November 09. Here is a chart that shows the reality….not the lies that Fox ‘News’ would have people believe…
http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/general-business-discussion/28091-private-sector-job-growth-2008-2010-a.html
The Obama stimulus saved this country from a major depression and I’m so glad that Heinrich supported such legislation. Too bad a part of the stimulus was wasted on tax cuts for 95% of Americans who don’t even realize they got a tax cut. In fact, the CBO estimated that the stimulus package saved 3.3 million jobs.
http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/117xx/doc11706/08-24-ARRA.pdf#page=10
A healthcare bill that is nothing more than a major tax hike on small business that create jobs. Llaj, you should take a look at the unemployment numbers, Obama has failed, again and again to create jobs (besides temporary government jobs that have no substance).
We really have no idea what is in this healthcare bill, Pelosi said “we have to pass it before we know what’s in it…” It will be a Pandora’s box once we start to see the provisions when they come to light.
We were promised jobs. Instead we have a skyrocketing unemployment rate. I hope Heinrich looses his next election and goes back to Missouri.
I sincerely hope that Heinrich continues to vote with and support Nancy Pelosi…since she has successfully presided over some of the best legislation for the middle-class citizens of New Mexico — providing health care insurance to thousands and thousands of sick children who otherwise would be left to die (or their families to go bankrupt) is only a good thing, passing better environmental controls on polluting corporations is only a good thing, reinstating reasonable tax rates for the millionaires and billionaires amongst us is a very good thing, and job losses continue to go DOWN under President Obama. It’s too bad so many people don’t know the fact…and just repeat lies.
During this election, Mr. Heinrich showed his true colors – those of a desperate politician who was willing to bend the truth in a grotesque manner to assassinate the character of his opponent. This is what won the election for Martin, not “running on his record.” Not once did Heinrich mention in his ads that his disastrous votes for Heathcare and Cap and Trade legislation were good things for New Mexicans. Instead, he based his campaign on attacks and lies about his opponent “shipping jobs to China” and “stealing Social Security.”
This is your Congressman Albuquerque. This is what we have to deal with for the next two years. As mentioned above, Heinrich will again show his true colors during the lame-duck session, where he will stand with Pelosi again to vote for her tax hikes which will leave our economy stagnant and job losses will continue to rise.
“Know that I consider this victory a humbling challenge…”
As a two term congressman from NM in the minority party, I suspect he’s gonna have his share of “humbling challenges” over the next two years when the new congress goes into session in January.
How he votes now when the lameduck session starts is going to be very indicative of how much “compromise” he’s willing to make “possible”.
Mr. Heinrich – compromise is fine…as long as the other side is willing to compromise as well. But the Republicans have shown over and over through their words and actions that the only compromise they will accept is complete and total capitulation of the Democrats and no change from their hard right-wing attitude and policies. Any so-called “compromise” seems to mean just how far right-wing will we go??? Since you were elected as a Democrat, and you have supported democrat policies for the most part, I would expect you to continue to support those policies and not leave your constituents at the mercy of the right-wing extremists that currently run the Republican Party. Please continue to support better environmental policies, health care for all Americans (not just the rich), and other reasonable positions that you have supported in the past. We need you to stand up for us.
Dr. J:
It’s not sensitivity if I’m pointing out that neither history nor basic mathematics support your claim.
My, my Icarus, still quite sensitive if I criticize any of your favorite politicians. I still don’t understand your attraction to defending professional politicians as though they were yourself, but whatever. I don’t think you can get anyone to believe some impartial, objective court (there is no such thing, but I digress) draws CD boundries without any input or manipulation from the ruling party in the legislature. But as Barnham said, there’s a sucker born every minute. The other point is that you are confusing averaging polarized voters with truly moderate voters. Of course if you stick together 40% Repubs, 40% Dems, and 20% Independents that can and do swing from party to party in differing percentages, you get an average, close election time and again. This does not mean that CD1 ” is actually a fairly good definition of what “moderate” means in America”, far, far from it. It is just a CD with close percentages of polarized voters. Those voters are not moderate at all, go talk to some of them in the South Valley for instance. Obama’s backyard, manipulated “party” there recently gives you a good idea of how far left they are. I don’t think Barela ran a good campaign, if he did he would have won, que no? He is probably as incompetent as Marty, but those voters in CD 1 got what they deserved, that’s for sure. And it appears Marty did vote for Pelosi, to continue their stellar and outstanding agenda in Congress that has been so successful so far and pleased so many citizens, so good luck on that one.
There are so many things wrong with Dr. J’s statement that it’s difficult to know where to begin. First of all, is anyone else getting bored with the repeated charges of “left wing” against the traditionally Dixie-crat conservative New Mexico Democratic Party? Secondly, since all three New Mexico congressional districts were drawn to specifications ordered by the courts to prevent the legislature from gerrymandering, this charge rings hollow – even more so when you consider that Martin Heinrich is the first Democrat to ever hold the seat. The reality is that the New Mexico first is actually a fairly good definition of what “moderate” means in America, which is why the election is always far closer than the typical House race. Is Martin Heinrich politically further to the left than the average voter in his district? Yes. However, they reelected him anyway, and its offensive to imply that it was because the voters were ill-informed. Barela lost in part because Congressman Heinrich really hasn’t done anything that a majority of his constituents disagreed with, and in part because Barela himself started by running a good campaign… and then decided to attack a local small business. That turned away enough voters to change what had been a nail-biter race, and ranks among the three stupidest ads of the cycle (the other two being the Herrera “look at me take credit for how well the clerks ran the 2008 election” radio ad and the Denish “look how good Richardson did” ad).
Also, most importantly of all, there is a preponderance of humble-pie polls that you may want to take a look at, Dr. J. Americans are disappointed in congressional Democrats. Do you know who has lower overall approval ratings than they do? Congressional Republicans. Indeed, Americans fully expect the new House to be less effective than the old one.
Congressman Heinrich is once again presenting spin disconnected from the truth. His victory was obtained through the hardball politics of scaring seniors about loosing social security and painting his opponent as a DC lobbyist intent on shipping jobs to China. As Liz said in his ads “I don’t know if I can trust this Barela”. This represented the key message to registered Dems leaning towards the more balanced opponent.
The real losers will be all the 18-34 year old UNM/Nob hill types who will have their path to the middle class firmly obstructed by the policies Mr. Heinrich has voted to support. Those that think they have gained by his votes will see over time all the unintended consequences of these grand government schemes.
While kudos are due to Mr. Heinrich for tapping out of state consultants to engineer a victory in a bad external environment, we need him to please stop the vacuous political spin.
Just remember you were elected by good democrats and we want you to only compromise to get the best possible deal that works for our children and grandchildren. That means sacrifices now for all of us including Dr. J’s fat cat non taxpayers. You must vote to increase taxes so our kids don’t pay our bills. You must vote to decrease defense spending. You must vote to curb entitlements. Congratulations on your victory.
Really Marty? How many ads did you run touting your votes for ObamaCare, carbon taxes, the bailouts of failed Wall Street fat cats, the bailout of failed auto companies, and the pork-filled stimulus? Oh, you did tout how you saved the Tacos (even though they are not anything close to what they were), and pork delivered to your district special interests. And it could be that CD1 is one of the handful of left wing, gerrymandered districts that were immune to public outrage over the excesses of Congress the last 2 years, like Pelosi’s, Hoyer’s, Ben Ray’s etc. But we will be watching your vote for Minority Leader quite closely, that will tell us all we need to know about your claims now of “working together” with Repubs for the greater good of ALL Americans, not just your partisan supporters.