Green News and Opinion

He's the Democrat running for Congress against Carol Miller. In his reply to my post about Miller's race, LP wrote that my referring to Wiviott as a corporate Democrat shows an inadequate understanding of his politics at the least, or sometihing along those lines.

I'll confess to not knowing Don Wiviott at all. So I am doing some looking about to see what I can find.

First of all, Wiviott's campaign slogan, "A Democrat who will stand up to Bush" seems kinda stupid as Bush will not be President in just over a year. Maybe I would be more impressed if his slogan was "A Democrat who will stand up against Clinton".

Secondly, he's a land developer in a place where some question the benefits of adding additional load to the environment. Perhaps he's an exceptional land developer, but in my 50 years on this globe I have yet to meet a land developer who is not at least very comfortable with the corporate world and happy to do their bidding.

His website touts his support for better ballot access laws, but before you get all misty eyed, read this:

Wiviott, a Sante Fe homebuilder and candidate for Congress in the Third District, has been one of the leading voices for change in new laws governing who can be placed on a political party’s primary ballot. Under the new law, parties can only place on their ballots those candidates that receive at least 20 percent of delegates at a pre-primary convention. As Wiviott said last week, the law “runs contrary to the values of New Mexico .”

So...this non-corporate Democrat wants to make it easier for Democrats to get on the ballot, but not a word about fair ballot access for non-corporate parties.

Here's another headline from his site: Energy Bill a Good 'First Step;' More Action Needed

This "Good first step" energy bill gave billions in protection money to the Nuclear Industry, gave continuing tax breaks to fossil fuel companies, and spends our tax dollars on corporate boondoggles like ethanol and "clean coal". With "Good first steps" like this, we don't need any mis-steps!

I don't know...maybe I am unconvinced in part by this passage I found by googling Mr. Wiviott:

Don Wiviott is fine with more residential units but concerned about the Affordable Housing Ordinance. Don will loose $50,000/unit, this is a “Big Issue”. He is reducing the buildings to two instead of three with more residential, 34 units, 16-20 residential. Don asks if City Council will get hung up on number of units?

Maybe we should take a walk over to the financial reports to see what we can find there.

Perhaps the fact that he has raised over a million dollars for his campaign, while all his Democratic competitors have recorded no donations at all yet. Not the sort of thing one normally sees in a "maverick's" campaign. Admittedly, $800,000 of that came from his own hip pocket, but you are telling me that a millionaire candidate who made his millions in land development is not a corporate Democrat? Maybe, but let's look a bit deeper shall we?

Don Wiviott (D)
ActBlue $48,819
Washington Securities $4,600
Jackalope Retail $2,300
Living Design Group $2,300
McCalla Raymer $2,300
McCune Charitable Foundation $2,300
Tishman Group $2,300
Ventana Gallery $2,300
Wolf Firm $2,300
Coors Brewing $2,000
Barker Maintainence $1,500
Santa Fe Comm Coll /Chief Of $1,300
Wiviott for New Mexico $1,250
Sommer, Udall et al $1,000

$2000 from Coors!...and this union-busting, gay-bashing, Republican funding corporate slime machine is a contributor? No, you're right...he's not a corporate Democrat. He's apparently a corporate Republican pretending to be a corporate Democrat!

But, I wait with baited breath for Wiviott's supporters to clear up any confusion I may have caused here.

Go Carol Miller!