ACLU of New Mexico members who have paid their dues within the past 15 months are eligible to vote for the organization’s board of directors. To vote, you must use the unique voter identification code printed on the board election postcard sent to your house. If you believe that you are a current ACLU-NM member but did not recieve your voter ID, you can request your number by emailing cvigil@aclu-nm.org. Online votes must be cast by 11:59 pm on March 31, 2018. If you would like to request a paper ballot, or have questions related to the election, call (505) 266-5915 x1006.

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2018 Board Candidate Statements

Paulina Iñigo

An ACLU member since 1992, I joined the local affiliate as a board member several years later.  I took a 2-3 year break and returned in 2012. I served on various committees through my tenure, most recently I have co-chaired the Equity and Inclusion Committee. This committee, formed at the request of the national ACLU, strives to have the ACLU “walk their talk.” It had become evident that our diversity lacked in several aspects (age, ethnicity, area of expertise, geographic provenance, etc.), for the ACLU as a whole, leading to the request from national.  For a well balanced board, a broader vision of the world and society seems best. So, the E & I committee came into existence and strives to enhance our board.

The E & I work presents a new frontier. For years the corporate and public sectors have implemented affirmative action but this idea goes further than simple diversity “by the numbers.” The work of the committee remains unclear and we develop it as we go, a new area for, not just the ACLU, but all groups tackling the idea.

For me, the work in the committee, although frustrating at times, provides the most in depth knowledge of how staff and fellow board members think and operate. We have struggled to separate the operational and governance aspects of the affiliate as we have grown. I look forward to continuing this work as it evolves. In the end, I envision a stronger and more cohesive board!

 

Andy Schultz

I very much would like to remain an active member of the ACLU-NM Board of Directors.

I have served on the Board since 2010.  During that time, I was a member of the Executive Committee for four years, and was fortunate to be selected by the Board to serve as Vice-President for three years.  In addition to this work, I have been, and continue to serve as, a Cooperating Attorney for the ACLU-NM in the area of Church-State issues.

The ACLU-NM has been at the forefront of many of the most highly visible civil rights issues our State has faced in the recent past:  immigration reform, equal marriage, police misconduct, freedom of speech and religious liberty.  The very breadth of these issues – and the fact that the ACLU-NM is seen as the leading group for effective organization, forceful advocacy and meaningful dialogue – is the primary reason why an active and dynamic Board of Directors is so essential.  The Board has been a successful sounding board for debate for many of these difficult concerns, and at the same time, it has served as a careful steward of the organization’s resources.

I am a proud member of the ACLU-NM Board of Directors.  I very much would like to continue on the Board in order to assist the ACLU and its essential mission

Joe Sackett

I believe in the work of the ACLU and wish to continue to serve on the board of directors for the New Mexico affiliate because I think civil liberties as guaranteed in our Constitution are fundamental.  Without such protections and guarantees, political activity and artistic innovation eventually will occur only at the discretion or under the authorization of various powers-that-be, which inevitably suppress  such activity when it becomes troublesome.  If politics and art aren’t troublesome, they become corrupt and pointless, and change does not occur.  Therefore, the defense of civil liberties is vital, basic work.  ACLU does that work.  As an educator and artist, I think I bring a useful perspective to the board of ACLU-New Mexico.

Angelia Moore

I have worked in public education for 20 years, including consulting with the Santa Fe Center for Transformational School Leadership, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Missouri Department of Education, Anti-Defamation league in Missouri, and the Missouri History Museum. In 2007, I was named a James Madison U.S. Congressional Fellow and obtained an MA in History with an emphasis in the Constitution.

Currently, I serve as an administrator at a large pre-K through grade 8 bilingual school with South and Central American families in the poorest section of Santa Fe. In our school, there is a very real fear of deportation. I work very hard to ensure that I am informed and engaged in the debates and policies that are shaping the future of my students’ and families’ lives.

In addition to my educational experience in New Mexico, I spent seventeen years working with school districts in St. Louis, Missouri and had first-hand experience of the issues of equity and equality—from the very real police brutality of African American males in St. Louis at the hands of police officers, white-flight from urban to county areas where desegregation laws had to be written so that students could attend better performing county school districts, to experiencing the hatred towards Muslim-Americans (first-hand after the Gulf War and then towards her Muslim Bosnian-American students), and the movement towards LGBT rights and recognition (and the protections afforded to children and adults).

I am currently completing an eight-month term on the Board of Directors and also serve as the Secretary for the Executive Committee for ACLU-NM. I bring experience with financial management, strategic planning, and program and organizational development, as well as a passion for justice and protecting the freedoms of those who are underrepresented and underserved. I hope to continue serving ACLU-NM in meaningful ways that extend and protect the civil liberties of all people.

Peter Ossorio

This fall, at the end of the course, I asked my civil liberties students --without considering whether their desires were “realistic” -- to imagine what they hoped would be the state of civil liberties in the future.  Now, I am doing the same.  I ask for another term on the ACLU-NM Board to join with other members to identify where we need to go – no matter how hard the effort or unlikely our success.

Because there are currently no term limits on Board service, I feel a duty of loyalty to ACLU-NM includes knowing when to step aside.  I thought my time would be at the end of the first year of the Clinton administration.  Now, I want to help actively and strategically defend civil liberties in New Mexico – and develop counterattacks and proactive measures to advance civil liberties even while they are under great stress nationally.

Short of armed struggle, all change runs through the election system.  A disenfranchised, misled, citizenry or an insecure, vulnerable election system makes it impossible to pass laws to protect and advance civil liberties.  That is why I believe ACLU-NM should continuously join with other groups to educate and engage potential voters and to oppose gerrymandering and a return of poll taxes in the guise of expensive identification requirements.

Private entrepreneurs and for profit corporations can deliver many excellent services and products, but they have an inherent conflict of interest in profiting from detaining human beings. I support not only reducing incarceration but eliminating privately operated detention centers.   I also support ACLU-NM’s demanding transparency in government at all levels – from police departments to statewide agencies.

In my previous professions of Army officer and federal prosecutor, I swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; . . . [and] bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”  I ask for your vote to permit me to continue fulfilling that duty.

John Salamack

As a Board member of the ACLU-New Mexico for over ten years, I wholeheartedly wish to continue to serve.  I believe fully in what the ACLU represents—protection of the Constitution and upholding civil liberties for all people.

My background is international:  I was a 1960’s Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran and have kept an active interest in the Middle East and Africa ever since.  (Immigration rights are an extremely important issue to me.)  My graduate studies were at the American University of Beirut where I also received a Ford Foundation fellowship to teach briefly at the American University in Cairo. 

My career since my return to the United States has been with non-profit organizations.  For Save the Children, I was the country director in Yemen, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, the Dominican Republic, Italy (where I received an honor from the President of Italy) and the southwest USA.  I have also done consulting work in Egypt, Malawi and Somalia. 

My work with non-profits has given me an extraordinary opportunity for insight into the struggle of children; I am especially interested in issues involving immigrant children.  I feel passionately that all children should have the right to live in a just and secure society.

Within the ACLU-NM, I believe I can offer an international perspective.  I have lived and worked under many forms of government—military dictatorships, sectarian rule, monarchies and civil governance.  These experiences have given me a view of what governments can and cannot do (both good and bad).  I have also seen first-hand how some governments have floundered and ultimately disintegrated. 

The current climate in the United States makes me doubly aware of how fragile a democratic government can be.  I cherish the American Constitution and fervently support the civil rights of all persons. 

I respectfully request that the membership of the ACLU-NM vote to allow my continued service on its Board of Directors.

Ross Chaney

Growing up as a Native American on the Osage Reservation and attending school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I have experienced firsthand racism, un-equal education and conservative ideals turned into law. 

I have been a contributing member of the North NM community for over 15 years and continue to be a public servant in local government and a volunteer with the NM non-profit communities. As one example, in 2009 I worked with the First Judicial district and C.A.S.A. to develop a pilot program for foster child, to support their processing of grief and loss. 

I currently serve at the City of Santa Fe as the Economic Development Specialist. Before this position I was director of business programs for the Santa Fe Business Incubator, coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs from one-person lifestyle businesses to high technology. 

In 2005, Governor Bill Richardson appointed me as the Administrative Services Division Director/COO/CFO of the New Mexico Indian Affair Department. I have also served as the Senior EVP of Business Development, of a Sovereign Nation Tribal Holding Company, where I coordinated law firms to represent the holding company in matters of business development, litigation, contracts, finance, hiring, and legal issues of Tribal sovereignty. Before my career in public service I spent many years as an international corporate analyst for sales, market and product development.

These experiences have made me strong believer in the vitality and importance of serving in leadership positions to help guide the work on the state and local level, that protect the rights of all people. A few of my core principles and things that I am passionate about are 4th amendment rights, protection of the poor, 1st amendment rights, empowering and making sure minorities are granted the same opportunities and supporting the defense of the weak.

I have been an active supporter of the ACLU stance on local and national matters. I believe it is time for me to utilize my grassroots experience and business and legal acumen to do more for all citizens of the State of New Mexico, by defending and protecting civil rights and liberties.

I respectfully ask to be considered to serve on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico American Civil Liberties Union

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