The Senate Rules Committee gave a do-pass recommendation today to a bill that would enact campaign contribution limits in New Mexico.
On a vote of 7-0, the bill now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to the New Mexico Independent. It’s a committee substitute drafted after consideration of several contribution-limit bills over the last couple of weeks, and isn’t yet available online.
The bill would limit contributions from individuals to $2,300, from political committees to $5,000 and from political parties to $10,000 per calendar year. It would take effect on Jan. 1, 2011 and includes a sunset clause of Jan. 1, 2013, which Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque and the committee’s chairwoman, was quoted by NMI as saying would give the state a chance to review the limits.
Steve Allen, director of Common Cause New Mexico, said there could be a different way to review the system, and the sunset clause concerns him. But he noted that this is the first major ethics reform to pass the committee.
“We just are grateful that we have what we consider a major ethics reform bill make its way out of the committee,” NMI quoted him as saying.
A prior version of this posting incorrectly stated that the sunset clause would take effect in 2011.