An Up and Coming Progressive Champion in New Mexico

Albuquerque City Councilman Martin Heinrich is showing how progressive populists at the local level can really be instrumental in making change. Heinrich, you may recall, has been spearheading his city's fight to raise its minimum wage - a fight that brings out all the big corporate guns who don't want to have to pay workers well. Sadly, Heinrich's legislation and subsequent ballot initiative lost in a very narrow vote this week.

But Heinrich isn't taking the loss sitting down. Just days after the ballot vote, he managed to get New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) to back his efforts to pass a statewide living wage law.

Heinrich is the kind of political leader progressives will be relying on in the future to clean up government and start making it work for ordinary middle-class people - not just the fat cats, the lobbyists, and the corporate interests. He is, in short, a model for how even at the local level, a new progressive populism is starting to boil into a real movement.

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