Bill Mattiace
Former Las Cruces Mayor Bill Mattiace donated $10,000 from his campaign account to help pay for the funeral of his sister-in-law’s husband, the Las Cruces Sun-News is reporting.
There’s apparently nothing in city or state law that makes the donation illegal, even though it had nothing to do with any campaign or election.
Mattiace lost his re-election battle in 2007, but considered another run last year. Instead, he became executive director of the New Mexico Border Authority. More about the donation, from the Sun-News:
“Mattiace, who maintained a campaign fund as he considered a possible run for mayor in 2011 before listening to family wishes and giving up those plans, gave most of the money in that fund to his sister-in-law to pay for her husband’s funeral expenses.
“In Mattiace’s final campaign finance report, filed with City Clerk Esther Martinez on Nov. 7, he listed a $10,000 contribution to the estate of Nick Nicolitz as a ‘donation to funeral expenses.’ Nicolitz, the brother of Mattiace’s wife, Wanda, died in October after an extended illness.
“Nicolitz had lived most of his life in Las Cruces, after his family immigrated to the U.S. in March 1957 from Holland.
“‘I just felt it was the right thing to do,’ Mattiace said.”
Such donations shouldn’t be allowed, according to Viki Harrison, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico. Here’s what she was quoted by the Sun-News as saying:
“Our democracy will fail if wealthy interests are able to buy favor with elected officials. For this reason, campaign contributions should be strictly limited, and at the very least they should never be used to pay for personal or family expenses. City law should be amended to require that unused contributions either be returned to the original donor or transferred to the city’s general fund.”
View Mattiace’s Nov. 7 finance report here. Read the Sun-News article here.