“This is the Wild West,” state Sen. Dede Feldman says about New Mexico being one of only a handful of states without campaign contribution limits and an ethics commission.
Thus begins an in-depth look at New Mexico’s lack of ethics laws that ran in today’s New York Times. It comes in the face of a federal grand jury investigation into allegations of pay-to-play in Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration. You can read the article by clicking here.
“Since taking office in 2003, Mr. Richardson has been dogged by accusations that big contributors to his campaign received favors from the state — patronage jobs, infrastructure projects, contracts, approvals from state boards. Those accusations, never proved, have not hurt Mr. Richardson’s popularity,” the article states. “But now the governor, who has promoted campaign-finance limits in recent years, finds himself on the defensive.”
The money line in the article, I think, comes in the context of Richardson maintaining that campaign contributions don’t influence his decisions.
“Yet in an interview on NBC in 2007, Mr. Richardson acknowledged that giving money to a politician gives the donor ‘a little bit of an edge,’ the article states.
“I don’t give any extra access to somebody that contributes,” Richardson said in that 2007 interview. “But I’ll remember that person, and I’ll say: ‘Jeez, that guy helped me. Maybe I can help them.’”
Does that quote help put the current situation in context? I’ll let you decide. But the article is really worth your time. Take a few minutes to read it.