Martin Heinrich: New Mexico's next congressperson (photo stolen here)
When President-elect Obama sits down in November, as he's promised, to hammer out the details of his climate change agenda, he'll need to know he can count on a newly-elected Congress to support this groundbreaking legislation.
That means that not only do we need to elect Barack Obama president, we also need to send a lot more green Dems to Congress with him. Right now the Democrats have a majority, but we'll need a bigger one to counter the resistance from Big Oil and Big Business.
Enter Martin Heinrich. He's running for Congress in New Mexico's first congressional district, a district I'm pretty familiar with. This district was barely held by Heather Wilson last go round—she won by 800 votes, one of the closest margins in any house race. Now she's out of the picture completely—she's running for Senate (and will likely get beaten by Tom Udall if she manages to get the nomination).
So it's now an open seat, and we've got a real progressive running.
I met Martin at a New Mexico PIRG event, which was co-sponsored by their sister organization, Environment New Mexico. He struck me then as a sincere guy, and like me, eager to make a difference in his adopted state of New Mexico. At the time he was an energetic City Councilor who already had a reputation in the enviro community. Now he's running for Congress, and has cleared the first hurdle toward getting the nomination by picking up the majority of delegates at the state convention.
He's been endorsed by a whole slew of unions, Blue America, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club.
Plus he was voted the Hottest Man in U.S. politics. But don't think he's just a pretty face: he majored in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri (which gets a big thumbs up in my family!). In college he built a solar car which used regenerative braking (how cool is that?!) and raced it across the country. If all that doesn't make your heart go pitter patter, get a load of this: he opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning.
Sound familiar? Could it be that I could pull the lever for not one but two anti-Iraq war candidates in November?
It gets better: During an online interview at Firedoglake recently, he said "We need AmeriCorps volunteers weatherizing the homes of senior citizens on fixed incomes." (Smelling salts! Where are my smelling salts?!) "We need to lead the world in research and development of clean energy at our national labs. This has to be something every American participates in." Science. Remember that? Swoon!
And foodies, he also is concerned about diversifying food production so that we support local producers instead of Big Ag. If I might suggest a slogan: A stalk of locally grown broccoli in every pot!
Okay, I'm sold. I'll be adding some money to his campaign to help fill up that balloon on his website.
Martin's just the kind of smart progressive I want to see in Congress next year, helping President Obama steer this country in a new direction–maybe with the help of his solar car!
You can learn more about Martin at his website. Or if you think candidate websites are biased, check out his Wiki. (No, not the one for the German chemist; that's another smart Martin Heinrich.) And that Firedoglake interview has lots more, straight from Martin himself.If you want to help turn New Mexico's First CD blue again (those sunsets would be so much nicer in a blue congressional district!) donate here.
Barack Obama and Martin Heinrich. It's not too much to ask, is it?
