Mr. Fancy Pants Goes to the Ball

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I alluded in my Twitter feed a few weeks ago that I had purchased a tuxedo. Well, it’s inauguration season here in Washington D.C., and I’m going to celebrate in style courtesy of the New Mexico State Society. My sister and I are society members, and while she forked up the cash to get in, the Society was gracious enough to allow me to attend as a member of the press. I think it’s very indicative of how well the Land of Enchantment, its lawmakers and other leaders have embraced new media and the state’s bloggers.

I’m also going to work with Matt from NMFBIHOP and Barb from Democracy for New Mexico to interview the freshman members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation (Reps. Ben Ray Lujan, Martin Heinrich, and Harry Teague) in the coming week.

Regardless of that possible coverage, I will be taking my camera to the Inaugural Gala (which is to be held at the beautiful Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian). So, I hope to snap a bunch of photos of New Mexican politicos and other friendly faces as we celebrate the inauguration of President-Elect Barack  Obama.

Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere

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A roundup of the leadership changes in the 111th Congress, such as I could put together:

With Democrats expanding their majorities in the House and Senate during the 2008 congressional elections, members of both parties sought to redefine the leadership structure within their respective caucuses. Some of the shuffling was predictable, while political calculation entered into consideration into other leadership campaigns. In addition, freshman members of the House and Senate were forced to take sides in their first actions in Congress, even though they have not been taken office.

H/T to John for the post title.

Crunch time

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I imagine most of the people still in New Mexico who read this blog are watching the economic turmoil with a mixture of fear, anger and awe. So much of the current mess seems beyond our control and completely out of our hands. And, while I’d agree with that in part, there are a couple of things you can do:

  1. Register to vote! This mess is the result of a bunch of bad decisions by a bunch of people, and voting better people into office is a great way of remedying the situation. There’s a widget on the right hand side of this blog where you can go, or visit this link to register through Rock the Vote. You only have a few days left.
  2. Donate to candidates. I know it’s tough right now, especially with the economy in the state it’s in. However, it’s probably the best investment you can make with your money. Vote more and better Democrats into Congress (people like Martin Heinrich or Harry Teague) and they’ll work to fix some of the inequality that has impacted families across the state and country. Check out the True Blue New Mexico page on Act Blue and send some coin to some worthy candidates.
  3. Volunteer. Knock on some doors or make some phone calls on behalf of Barack Obama. My understanding is that they’re coordinating a lot of the get-out-the-vote effort, and this will be crucial in swinging New Mexico for the Democrats in the 2nd Congressional District and for the presidential race.
  4. Tell your friends. Send them a link to this post. Ask them to register. See if they’ll volunteer with you.

Or, you can do nothing – you can sit back and watch what happens. If you think the country is doing great and you’re happy with your health care options and you think America is safer than in 2000 and you’re not worried about your retirement, then I guess you don’t have that much at stake in this election. Otherwise, I hope you’ll help out. You owe it to yourself.

Morning Updates Resume

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Head on over to NMFBIHOP, where I’m again writing morning news updates. They’re not all inclusive and certainly not insidery, but I try to hit the big stuff and hopefully some other stuff you may have missed otherwise.

Morning updates are hot and fresh, 6 days a week!

Also, if you’re not reading Matt’s work at NMFBIHOP or at the New Mexico Independent, you should be, and tune into his weekly podcast every Tuesday night as well!

Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere – Congressional Primaries Recap

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With my incredible interns helping with research, I wrote a massive recap of congressional primaries on Tuesday – seven states and the District of Columbia held nominating elections that day (you can read the preview here).

The wrap up was so long we decided to split it into three sections:

  1. New England (Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vemont)
  2. Mid-Atlantic (Washington D.C. and New York)
  3. Midwestern (Minnesota and Wisconsin)

The three pieces probably don’t have everything you would ever want to know about the candidates in each state, but there’s still a wealth of information there if you’re interested. Of course, you most of this information was pulled from the profiles built by Congresspedia’s citizen-journalists, all part of our Wiki the Vote project.

Congressional Twitter Feeds

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A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog entry over on Huffington Post about the need for new congressional rules that would let members of Congress use the same social tools that their constituents are using: Facebook, Youtube, blogs, etc. It was all part of the Sunlight Foundation‘s campaign, Let our Congress Tweet. While we used Twitter (the online social networking/microblogging site that limits your posts to 140 characters) as an example, we’re concerned that members of Congress should be able to use all the services technology offers.

Over at Congresspedia, we’re starting to track the members of Congress who are using Twitter. We’ve compiled a list of 29 members thus far, and we’re always on the look out for others. One neat trick we’re offering: for those members who are using Twitter, you can read their latest posts right on the Congressedia profile.

Rep. Tom Udall was one of the first to adopt the service, and his campaign has been quick to embrace blogging and other aspects of the Web as well. You can see his Congresspedia profile here, complete with his most recent “tweets” from Twitter.

If you know of any other members of Congress using Twitter (or congressional candidates for that matter) please let us know!