Dede Feldman

Dede Feldman is a veteran of the NM Senate, where she represented the North Valley of Albuquerque for 16 years. The former chair of the  legislature's Health and Human Services Committee, as well as the Senate Public Affairs Committee, she passed scores of laws affecting the lives of women, children and health care consumers including a“Graduated Drivers License” system for teens, a mastectomy bill that mandates insurance companies cover a minimum 48 hr. hospital stay, as well as the creation of a Brain Injury Services Fund that provides much needed services to people with head injuries. She also sponsored the “Do Not Call” bill in 2003 prohibiting unwanted telephone solicitations, anATV safety bill in 2005 and the state's Senior Prescription Drug Discount program (2002).She focused on improving access to quality health care for New Mexicans without insurance and reducing the high cost of prescription drugs. A longtime environmentalist, Feldman has sponsored many bills to preserve the bosque and conserve water, including the statewide water plan, and a landmark groundwater protection bill passed in 1999. Dede has introduced legislation to reform campaign financing every year she has been in the legislature finally winning approval for public financing of the Public Regulation Commission in 2004, and limitations on campaign contributions in 2009. 

 Feldman has had a varied career as a journalist, teacher and owner of a small public relations firm. She is currently at work on a book on the New Mexico Senate, Boots, Suits and Citizen Legislators.