ATALAYA ADVOCACY
Advocate for What Matters
Background
Owner and CEO Carter Bundy has been involved in elections, policy, training, and consulting since February 2000, with a focus on advocacy and lobbying at the local, state, and federal levels. Although he has worked in over 15 states, his primary focus has been in New Mexico, where he has lived since early 2002.
From 1995-2000, Carter practiced law in New York City after graduating and receiving a J.D. from Berkeley Law (formerly Boalt Hall) at the University of California at Berkeley. His pro bono work included successfully advocating for political asylum from a war-ravaged country for the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights and winning legal battles for workers in both the service and textile industries brought to his firm by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
He graduated from the University of Virginia as a History and Foreign Affairs double major before that, where he started on the University's rugby team as a fullback. He was present for UVA's Men's Basketball National Championship in 2019 and often wears orange and blue.
Atalaya Advocacy is named after family dog/Española Valley Humane Society (support them if you can!) superstar Atalaya, who was in turn named after the 9,125 feet-above-sea-level mountain that watches over Santa Fe. Atalaya is pictured below alongside her new brother, Tippy. Carter lives in Santa Fe with his wife, son, and of course, Atalaya and Tippy.
Select Accomplishments and Experience
Carter has been the lead or co-lead lobbyist on some of the most significant state-level labor and worker legislation in New Mexico and the West in the last 22 years, including:
2003 State of New Mexico Public Employee Bargaining Act
2004 State of New Mexico health care premium legislation
2005 City of Albuquerque Minimum Wage increase
2005-07 City of Santa Fe Minimum Wage increase
2007 45% increase in State of New Mexico Minimum Wage over 3-year period
2009 State of New Mexico home-based childcare provider organizing legislation
2011-13 Budgets with hostile administration to prevent layoffs in aftermath of Great Recession
2012-13 City of Albuquerque majority vote runoff requirement ordinance
2013 New Mexico PERA and ERB Pension Reform
2017 Nevada state employee due process disciplinary rights
2017 Recission of New Mexico and Nevada calls for new U.S. Constitutional Convention, providing the buffer to keep proponents under the requisite 2/3s of all states
2019 Nevada State Employee Collective Bargaining Act
2019 Nevada legislation banning private prisons
2020 Protection of every single state employee bargaining unit job in New Mexico and Nevada from layoffs and furloughs during Covid crash (with Nevada furloughs repaid after American Rescue Plan passage
2020 Major pro-worker revisions to New Mexico Public Employee Bargaining Act
2020 Pro-worker changes to New Mexico PERA
2021 Largest New Mexico state employee raises in decades
2022 Colorado County Collective Bargaining Law (second chair to AFSCME's incredible lead Colorado lobbyist)
2023 Nevada Paid Family and Sick Leave Legislation, allowing workers to receive half pay for up to 8 weeks (beyond all sick, vacation, and disability leave) to take care of loved ones or themselves.
2023 Largest across-the-board Nevada state employee raises in history, including enforcement of arbitration awards via budget legislation
2023 Pro-worker revisions to Nevada state employee collective bargaining laws
2024 NM Return to Work Legislation, addressing staffing shortages while protecting retirement funds
Additionally, Carter led union advocacy efforts to reduce the presence of private prisons in New Mexico and to prohibit them by statute in Nevada.
Not all legislative wins result in passing laws. Some of the toughest, most important work involves playing defense to protect rights and defeating terrible legislation. Major defensive victories include the defeat, year after year, of legislation including:
So-called "right to work" legislation, which guts the rights of workers and companies to voluntarily agree to union representation
Massive taxpayer giveaways to developers that gut city, county, and state revenue streams while shifting burden of risk for sprawl development from developers to taxpayers (greenfield Tax Increment Financing and Development Districts)
Proposals to privatize core government services, subjecting taxpayers to being fleeced by out-of-state corporations
Proposals to weaken or eliminate strong retirement security
Proposals to erode democracy in the City of Albuquerque by eliminating majority-vote runoff requirements
And while not lobbying directly in Washington, DC, Carter was heavily involved in his union's advocacy in New Mexico and other jurisdictions for any number of terrific federal laws, including intense organizing in support of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, and more.
Carter also has extensive training experience, including training members, national union leaders, outside advocacy groups, legislative caucuses, and the general public about both labor issues and political, legislative, and policy work.
In the electoral sphere, Carter has led numerous state-level and regional field operations, from presidential campaign state director to Federation of Labor state electoral director to labor coalition field director in multiple states during presidential primaries and state and regional lead. Atalaya Advocacy is primarily focused on issue and policy advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels, but is well-positioned to consult on electoral work to help create the best possible conditions and opportunities for policy success.
Finally, Carter has experience at the local and state level helping workers formally and informally negotiate stronger contracts and protecting core rights. He has often played a significant role in developing messaging tying political action to organizing opportunities, as well as helping with both member and political organizing in multiple states.
Services/Contact
Atalaya Advocacy offers multiple services to advance your organization's ability to effectively advocate for positive changes to public policy.
One of the best ways Atalaya Advocacy can help any organization is by directly lobbying for that organization's issues. Atalaya Advocacy's first clients, proudly, include a labor organization and an environmental advocacy group, and Carter will work only with entities committed to a healthier planet and people.
Building on Carter's extensive legislative, political, and advocacy training experience, he can help train groups from one to 100 in understanding how to effectively advocate for your issues. Being heard as effectively as you can with local government, state government, or federal electeds can mean real change.
He also consults on electoral work, from developing questionnaires and interviews to endorsement processes, earned media, press releases, messaging, and resource allocation. Depending on endorsements may also be available for consulting to maximize electoral impact.
Contact Carter at 505-463-8499 or at carterbundy@gmail.com, or at the Roundhouse most any day of the session!
