It’s beyond high time to open up our government
These are deeply troubling times. The character of our civic discourse is at an all-time low. We can’t afford that. Nowhere is our lack of tolerance and civility more apparent than in our political dialogue. I blame our two-party system for setting us against each other, for our intense polarization and for the gridlock. All of us care deeply about the well-being of our families, about our own health and about so much more. We must reclaim our humanity and recognize that we have so much more in common than that which separates us.
We would, of course, benefit from higher voter participation. But what we need even more than higher turnout is more candidates. New Mexico has the least competitive state elections in the nation. It’s easy to see why. Our politicians use our redistricting process to pick their voters and as an incumbent protection racket — only half the legislative seats in this election cycle have an opponent. We’re one of only nine states that have fully closed primaries, which are in too many cases the only elections of consequence. They are funded with public money, yet are only accessible to those who join a major party. Our ballot access laws are some of the most unfair in the nation. In the jurisdiction in which I reside, a Republican would have needed 25 nominating petition signatures to get on the ballot as a candidate for our House of Representatives; an unaffiliated candidate would need 310. No wonder in the 39 years that independent candidates have had access to the ballot here, fewer than 20 have met the signature threshold for legislative office.
More and more people are electing to end their association with a political party. In several states, voters without party affiliation are the largest segment of the electorate. Even in New Mexico, where unaligned voters are disenfranchised, their ranks are growing while enrollment in the major parties is declining. Younger voters disproportionately choose not to join parties.
We don’t have to spend a nickel to make our elections the most fair and the most competitive in the country. With your help, we can create an environment that makes us proud. One that is fair, that embraces transparency and with a stringent ethics framework. We can create a system that rejects special interest money and, most importantly, that will attract our children as voters and as candidates.