And in somewhat of a back fire on the Mayor he now faces a democratic majority on the city council with the election of Diane Gibson. She is the recipient of the many votes of folks who don't like the tactics of the right wing fundamentalists. Her runoff election in District 7 received a large infusion of pro choice voters who decided to help her.
6 comments:
It is safe to assume: a different set of voters turned out for the abortion vote than the mayoral election and the voters were women and liberal minded men. I am happy these folks did the right thing with the abortion ban but I would have also liked these folks to have turned out for the mayoral election. They would have made a difference then, too. I am also glad the "pro-life" people stirred up a hornet's nest - that cannot be a good thing for this mayor and his administration. As a voter in both elections, I ask that my fellow voters keep paying attention.
Please don't be so hard on the Mayor and City Council on this. They had no choice but to let it go to a vote, and to use the exact language from the petitions. That's what the Initiative and Resolution ordinance requires. Look it up! Don't you remember the one to raise the Minimum Wage earlier this year, where they weren't even allowed to correct an obvious typo?
Actually, there was an alternative. If the City Council had voted to adopt the issue on the petition, an election would have been prevented. But then we would be stuck with whatever it was.
There is nothing to stop the anti-abortion folks from launching another one today, even with the identical language, and requiring another expensive election on it.
The City Council needs to look at this ordinance to prevent it happening again in this way. A new Council will be sworn in soon, in early Dec. They might leave it to the new one.
We aren't being harsh on the Mayor or city council for holding an election what we are blaming the Mayor and City Council for is the SPECIAL election that caused the city to spend a lot of money when the matter could have been placed on the mayoral election. If you believe this was out of the hands of the mayor and the current city council. THAT is the problem.
Ah! I though the fact that it wasn't on the Mayoral election last month was because the City Clerk dragged her feet in certifying the petition signatures. Could the others really have put it on the ballot without the signatures being certified by the deadline? She had many offers of help to finish the process, but wouldn't take them.
The citizen's right to petition their representatives should be protected. I believe that trying to force that to be changed or made more difficult than it is now. What we need is stronger leadership that is more sensitive to the needs of the citizenry.
Good point Ms Meaders but the city clerk works for the Mayor and is appointed by the mayor. Ms Bailey blamed the citizens according to Bloomberg News.
The citizen initiative is a “very rarely used part of the city charter,” Bailey said. It was used last year for the first time in seven years to approve a minimum wage increase, she said.
http://bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/abortion-fight-grows-to-cities-as-albuquerque-shuns-limit.html
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