After a year of work by the governor’s ethics task force and a legislative subcommittee to help build consensus on ethics reform, the New Mexico Legislature adjourned last week with no major reform being approved.
It was the latest disappointing chapter in what has, thus far, been a mostly unsuccessful effort to reform the state’s tainted political system. Though activists have been pushing for four years, major reform proposals including enacting campaign contributions limits, creating a state ethics commission, paying a salary to lawmakers and expanding the public financing system to include statewide offices are left undone.
There has been a little progress. Legislators approved in 2006 a law that places limits on gifts to public officials and candidates for office, but it’s a weak law that hasn’t actually reduced lobbyist spending. They approved a state whistleblower law, made changes to the Governmental Conduct Act that included making it illegal for judges to solicit or accept bribes, and created a public-financing system for elections for the Public Regulation Commission, Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.
But those are baby steps. Consider the proof that far-reaching, systemic reform is necessary:
• The past two state treasurers have been convicted on federal public-corruption charges.
• The former Senate president and others are facing federal charges and accused of bilking taxpayers out of $4.2 million.
• Most of the state’s affordable housing system has collapsed under a scandal that involved the defaulting on $5 million in bonds, and a criminal investigation is ongoing.
• The governor, land commissioner and former attorney general have all been criticized for creating the appearance that they allow public-policy decisions to be influenced by campaign contributions.
The House approved only one reform proposal this session, creation of the ethics commission, but it didn’t do that until after the bill sat in one committee for more than half the session. By the time it was approved, there was little time for the Senate to act, so the proposal died. The Senate only approved one reform proposal, the enacting of campaign contribution limits. The bill took most of the session to get to the Senate floor, then sat on the calendar for two days without being scheduled for a vote. It didn’t pass the Senate until two hours before the end of the session, giving the House no time to consider it.
Election-year politics
But now senators can say, while campaigning during this election year, that they support contribution limits, and representatives can say they support an ethics commission. They accomplished nothing, but they’ll be able to say they at least tried.
This is basic stuff. The federal government and all but four states have contribution limits. The vast majority of states also have some sort of ethics commission. But
State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, one of the few lawmakers who openly fought for reform this year, said the public, media and politicians must do more for ethics reform to become a reality. He said three factors led to the dearth of ethics reform this session.
“No. 1, the public has not forced the issue. No. 2, the public has not been informed of the reasons why the reforms are needed, and the third is there was no genuine effort (on the part of most elected officials),” Cervantes said.
After four years, it doesn’t appear there will be a genuine effort unless the state’s politicians are forced to do it. Hopefully, voters will compel them in this election year to take the issue more seriously.
A version of this article was published today on the Diary of a Mad Voter blog published by the Denver Post’s Politics West and the independent Web site NewWest.net. I have slightly reworded a paraphrased quote from Cervantes in this posting to clarify its meaning.