Super Saturday: 100 Days Until The Election

It's a Super Saturday for campaigns statewide. Both Republicans and Democrats are working the phones and canvassing the streets mobilizing volunteers and trying to convince undecided voters.

Republican Party Executive Director and Communications Deputy Scott Darnell spoke with us at noon. He says he's excited that 60 volunteers from Arizona are spending the weekend working here.

BREAKING NEWS

In one of his final AUDIO INTERVIEWS, before he heads to Harvard University and the John F. Kenney School of Government, to earn a masters degree in public policy, Darnell (after months of urging by yours truly) finally admits (on tape) that he'll definitely be jumping on the New England Patriots bandwagon. Darnell also says he believes the outcome of many elections hinges on independent voters.

Of course you'll get one more chance to see Darnell on The Line, with Gene Grant, Jim Scarantino and Margaret Montoya, which is airs on the KNME's public affairs program New Mexico InFocus. I was honored to be included on the panel for Scott's last show which was taped on Thursday. Darnell's final segment airs on KNME on Friday, August 1st at 7pm.

Darnell Photo credit: MG Bralley

NM Dems Closing the "God Gap" - Part Deux

For years Republicans appealed to people of faith with their Moral Majority and faith-based programs. President Bush even promised to be a compassionate conservative.

Now Democrats want to broaden their appeal to churches and Christian groups.

770 KKOB's Morning Show Host Bob Clark talked with me about Clyburn's visit and the impact it may have on this fall's election.

Listen to AUDIO from the segment here.

Like President Carter, who promised "Never To Lie," Democrats say they "walk the walk, not just talk the talk." They believe their moral convictions are more in tune with the beliefs of Christians, especially regarding important issues on poverty, health care, the environment and the war.

Last week God's House church, in Albuquerque, hosted a prayer breakfast for Martin Heinrich. The keynote speaker was U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn.

You can read about the origins of the God Gap in this 2007 Time Magazine article.

From Publisher's Weekly:
Senior Time editor Amy Sullivan says trying to understand American politics without looking at religion would be like trying to understand the politics of the Middle East without paying attention to oil. Her fresh look at the God gap reveals the chasm's depths and offers a bridge across. Sullivan, an evangelical, discusses party process as the Catholic and white evangelical vote for Democrats declined sharply in the 1980s. The story of this shift is as fascinating as it is timely. Starting in the 1960s, she traces the Second Vatican Council's impact on Catholics and the rise of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, and the effects of these changes upon politics. Sullivan focuses with special sharpness on John Kerry, a case study in how to mishandle religion during a political race and challenges the conventional wisdom that the right was religious and the left wanted religion scrubbed from the public square. Evangelical and political conservatives may be related, but they are not synonymous, says Sullivan; Clinton, after all, is a genuine Southern evangelical. Sullivan's account argues persuasively and optimistically that politically liberal and theologically orthodox evangelicals can be brought back to the Democratic Party.