Pete Domenici Jr.
The Democratic Party of New Mexico is starting to get impatient with three Republican gubernatorial candidates who say they will or may voluntarily release campaign finance information before the next report is due in April but haven’t yet done it.
“The Republican candidates for governor like to talk about openness and transparency, but when given an opportunity to walk the walk, the majority of GOP candidates continue to run their campaigns in the dark,” Scott Forrester, the Democratic Party’s executive director, said today in a news release. “Everyone is left wondering what these candidates are hiding.”
Democratic candidate Diane Denish has been voluntarily releasing reports quarterly — even in off-election years when it’s not required — for some time, and she did it again in January. Republican Susana Martinez has matched Denish in voluntarily releasing a report of contributions and expenditures for the fourth quarter of 2009.
Allen Weh
Republican Janice Arnold-Jones has gone well beyond that in terms of disclosure of campaign contributions. She has been posting on her campaign Web site information about every contribution she’s received to date, and she is keeping the list of contributions current.
But unlike Denish and Martinez, Arnold-Jones has not been releasing information about campaign expenditures more often than is required by state law.
Meanwhile, the campaign of Republican Pete Domenici Jr., who entered the race in January, has said he’ll release reports at least monthly, and he most recently told me the first report would probably be released before the end of February.
Doug Turner
Republican Doug Turner has said “maybe” in response to my question about whether he would voluntarily release a finance report. And the campaign of Republican Allen Weh has said he is “considering” doing the same.
The responses from Turner and Weh came more than a month ago. I e-mailed those campaigns and the campaign of Domenici today seeking updates, and I will let you know if I get a response.
The next required finance report is due on April 12.