Chair

The chair reported that she and Maurreen Skowran had been working on preparations for the farewell party for Cheryl Harris, to be held Sunday 4 June. She suggested the caucus should donate $100 to help fund the party; any residue will be given to Cheryl to help with the costs of her move.

RESOLVED: to authorize a contribution of $100 to the fund for the Cheryl Harris farewell party (moved: NO; seconded: DF).

Other plans for expressing appreciation to long-time contributors to the caucus were discussed.

Treasurer

The treasurer reported that we have $4079.73 in the bank, with net income of $138.86 in May.

The chair and treasurer will make another attempt to get the signatures on the bank account updated.

Treasurer training will be offered by DPNM this summer with a focus on reports party caucuses are required to make to the Secretary of State.

The treasurer is working to prepare the report for July.

Political director

The political director reported that she was stepping back from the idea of making a legislative report card for 2023. Since Adelante had not had an organized lobbying effort during the session, it would seem unfair to fault legislators for not voting as we would have urged them to vote if we had had an organized lobbying effort.

She called several current topics to the caucus’s attention:

• She hopes for progress on gun violence legislation in the next session. The governor made a commitment to include the topic in the session call; we must hold her to it.

• In Valencia there is a fight with Niagara bottling company over the amount of water they take out of the county and the amount of profit they derive from it; we should watch that very closely.

• We should also closely monitor issues relating to fracking (and Harvey Yates).

• The bill to raise the federal debt ceiling has passed the House; Melanie Stansbury voted against it, but both Gabe Vasquez and Teresa Leger Fernandez voted for it. The provisions of the bill regarding student loans, the gas pipeline in West Virginia, the Trump era tax cuts (not repealed!), and limits on spending make it a disastrous bill, in the political director’s view. Some caucus members felt that on the whole it was a much better deal than could have been expected, given the Republican majority in the House; there was some discussion.

• 350 New Mexico, and our own Stefi Weisburd, put together a wonderful presentation called “Electrify New Mexico”, which may be viewed on YouTube; more information is available on the 350 New Mexico web site.