Heath Haussamen
You may recall that I used to accept individual contributions through PayPal to help support this site. Though I never promised anonymity to those who contributed in the past, I also never released their names or told them their contributions were not necessarily confidential.
Because of that, those are contributions that should remain, in my view, anonymous.
I’m writing to tell you that NMPolitics.net is no longer accepting such contributions.
I spend a lot of time reporting on government transparency and the ethical behavior — or unethical behavior — of elected officials. And I work hard to publish an ethical and transparent site, which is why I have policies in place and ethical guidelines that include disclosures of any potential conflicts.
The ongoing controversy over anonymous contributions to nonprofits in New Mexico and concerns that have recently been raised about the individual contributions I was accepting led me to realize I needed to remove the plank from my own eye.
Done. No more anonymous contributions coming my way.
I can’t reveal the identities of those who contributed in the past, since that wasn’t part of my agreement with them. But I can provide you with some other information: All-time, the individual contributions my business received amounted to 1.6 percent of the business’ total income. The average size of the contributions was $56.77.
It’s my hope that revealing what information I can about those past contributions, and making the necessary change of no longer accepting anonymous contributions, enhances the transparency and integrity of this site.
For now, I’m not accepting individual contributions at all. If I start accepting them again in the future, they won’t be anonymous.