ALBUQUERQUE — Activists from Equality New Mexico, the Human Rights Campaign and America Votes say this year they’re doing everything they can to help elect candidates sympathetic to gay rights to the state House and Senate. And this weekend they’re rolling out Camp Equality, an intensive political campaign training for local supporters.

Domestic partnership legislation is on the top of activists’ lists, but they hope that by electing candidates who support gay rights, they’ll get more votes for other types of legislation.

"A few legislators can make a big difference," says Jeremy Pittman, deputy field director for HRC.

Alexis Blizman, executive director of EQNM, says that in 2007 domestic partnership legislation passed the state House but failed in the Senate by one vote. "Last year [2008] it failed in committee—but that senator retired," Blizman said, referring to Sen. Lidio Rainaldi, D-Gallup. "In order to pass the legislation next year, we’re concentrating on getting a couple new people elected to the legislature." 

Although Blizman declines to name the candidates that her organization is supporting, she says that there are three House races and three Senate races that EQNM considers "Tier I," or most important. Three are in southern New Mexico and three are in Albuquerque.

Blizman says she plans to hire an organizer for the southern part of the state and she hopes that everyone who attends Camp Equality will be able to work on campaigns there or in Albuquerque.

Although EQNM and HRC focus mostly on equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) people, America Votes is a collaboration of approximately 40 diverse groups, from Sierra Club to NAACP and the Teamsters.

"It’s amazing the level of collaboration that’s going on with progressive organizations," Jennifer Ford, state director for America Votes, says. "We’re working in local elections and state elections, up and down the ballot."

And Pittman says that voters mobilized by a specific issue, such as gay rights, tend to vote up-ballot, instead of down-ballot, meaning that getting more of those voters to the polls could bring extra support to higher level progressive candidates such as Tom Udall and Barack Obama.

The Camp Equality Training has two tracks: one covering the fundamentals of working on a campaign and the other for more advanced training. "It has components of general election training—because everyone needs to know when you knock on a door, how do you talk to a voter—but it’s also tailored to specific issues," Ford says.

Although HRC is mostly focusing on state races, it’s also looking at national campaigns. "This is a great opportunity to make gains at the state and national level." Pittman says. "People are upset about the direction of the country and they’re looking to engage in elections that perhaps they’ve have sat out in the past."

"Nationally, what members of the community want is representatives who represent an entire district and not just particular parts of it," Pittman says. "GLBT people want to be treated equally under the law and they want to know they can walk down the street and be who they are, free from violence; go to work and not have to worry about being fired for who they are. They want to know they can buy a house or rent an apartment and not be kicked out. And ultimately they want to have their relationships protected and their families protected from harm."

 Many of those concerns can be addresses by tougher anti-discrimination laws, hate-crimes laws and anti-bullying measures, activists say.