New Mexico Open Primaries Bill Passes First Committee in the House After Passing the Full Senate 

SB16 for semi-open primaries passed its first test in the House this week, narrowly passing the Government, Elections, and Indians Affairs Committee on Monday in a 5-4 vote. The bill has already passed the full Senate. Check out the article in New Mexico In Depth that gives an excellent overview of where we are in the process of fighting to pass SB16: Lawmakers push for open primaries.

The bill now heads to the House Judiciary Committee, where it narrowly failed in the last session. The campaign is optimistic, though, that it will overcome last session's obstacles this go around. If we’re successful, it will go onto the full House for a vote and then onto the Governor’s desk. That all has to happen by March 22nd.

Congratulations to everyone who reached out to your representatives, submitted letters to the editor, and testimony. 

A key part of the work in New Mexico is telling the stories of independent voters. Watch some of our recent interviews with independent and independent-minded New Mexicans speaking out in support of SB 16: 

Open Primaries Welcomes Two New Team Members

The primary reform movement is growing by leaps and bounds. As Open Primaries doubles down this year with a focus on grassroots/tops organizing, we’re proud to welcome two new team members with decades of experience.

Cathy Stewart joins as our National Organizing Director and will be managing our on-going (and growing) project Let Us Vote–which just launched our new and improved site. 

Cathy is a founder and architect of the independent and political reform movements. For 35 years she has conceived and executed the most successful targeted base-building projects among independent and independent-aligned voters. Read more about Cathy here.

Gwen Mandell joins as our Director of Leadership Development to help launch a new spokesperson training program at Open Primaries. As Director of National Outreach at IndependentVoting.org, Mandell met, guided, and trained thousands of independents. Gwen will continue the  work of training independents to build and lead in her new role at Open Primaries. Read more about Gwen here.

Please join us in welcoming them both. 

New Hampshire Citizen Assembly Launches Effort to Pass Top Two Primaries in the Granite State.

New Hampshire together–a community-based group formed to identify issues of widespread concern and then act to produce meaningful, measurable change on them–put together a citizen assembly this past summer of people from all backgrounds to  put their differences aside and put forward initiatives to restore trust in the political process. One of the initiatives they have adopted after deliberation? A top two open primary. The group is now pursuing their goal through the legislature, with no illusions that this will be a quick victory.

Legislation is being sponsored by Rep. Russell Muirhead: 

"This is the moment where the American people become the adults in the room, and we decide to get together and get above the partisan death match.”

Former NH State Representative Marjorie Porter, a leader of the effort, put out an op-ed this week endorsing top two primaries for New Hampshire: 

“Establishing a single-ballot state primary election ballot  was recommended as a way to reduce extreme polarization and increase government responsiveness. It was approved by an astounding 85% of the Assembly delegates…what came across loud and clear at the Assembly was how concerned the delegates are with extreme polarization in our lives today. They believe politicians listen to their party instead of listening to the people they serve. I urge my former colleagues to consider carefully what the Citizens Assembly delegates have to say and take it to hear”

We’re working to support the team and we’ll keep you posted as things develop.

Have You Registered for Our Upcoming Discussion with Legendary Journalist Chuck Todd?

FULL DETAILS: 

WHO & WHAT: Open Primaries President John Opdycke will sit down for our monthly Primary Buzz Discussions Series for a timely conversation with special guest Chuck Todd (who spent nearly 10 years as the moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press) titled: Advancing Reform in a World Without Trust. 

WHEN: Tuesday March 18th at 3pm ET

WHY: Americans are losing trust in many norms and institutions: Congress, the media, science - even the American Dream. The list goes on. Todd recently left NBC after nearly 20 years citing: “National media can’t win trust back without having a robust partner locally and trying to game algorithms is no way to inform and report. People are craving community and that’s something national media or the major social media companies can’t do as well as local media. If you do this job seeking popularity, or to simply be an activist, you are doing this job incorrectly.” 

We’ll discuss the connection between reforming our politics and restoring trust in a wide range of institutions.

HOW: REGISTER ON ZOOM HERE.

You’re not going to want to miss this one.

Have a great weekend,

The Open Primaries Team