AG Gary King. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Attorney General Gary King says his office will appeal a federal judge’s ruling earlier this month that slapped down an attempt to force two nonprofits to register as political action committees.
“We feel the U.S. Supreme Court has raised some important concepts that have a bearing upon states’ rights to require organizations to disclose who is paying for political ads that are put forth by these same organizations,” King said in a news release. “This case has never been about the First Amendment, despite misinformation to the contrary. We are not trying to control the content of political ads.”
“We believe, however, that the case has everything to do with voters having the right to know who is paying for political advertising,” he said.
You can hear Albuquerque radio reporter Peter St. Cyr’s exclusive interview with King about the coming appeal by clicking here. The most interesting point: King says his office might have to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and acknowledged that the nation’s high court is currently considering a similar issue.
But King told St. Cyr that he expects this month’s district court ruling to be the “law of the land” for the 2010 election in New Mexico because appeals take time.
In early August, U.S. District Judge Judith C. Herrera issued a 30-page decision stating that mailers like this one sent out by New Mexico Youth Organized (NMYO) — which is a project of the Center for Civic Policy (CCP) — and SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP) two to three months before last year’s June primary don’t meet the narrow definition in federal law of political activity and thus can’t be regulated as such.
King has said the mailers cross the line between issue advocacy and political campaigning as defined by the state’s Campaign Reporting Act, alleging that they were designed to help progressive legislative candidates win elections. In addition to contending that the mailers were about an upcoming special session of the Legislature, not an election, the nonprofits have said all along that federal law trumps state law.
In her decision, the judge agreed with both points made by the nonprofits.
By way of disclosure, I also write for the New Mexico Independent, which is owned by the Center for Independent Media in Washington. When the group was starting up its New Mexico news site last year, CCP helped it locate funding sources. In addition, one of my colleagues at NMI, Marjorie Childress, works for SWOP. Neither organization has tried to use those facts to influence anything I have written.