This article has been updated.
With near-unanimous support, the New Mexico Senate approved a bill this afternoon that would limit campaign contributions beginning with the 2012 election cycle.
On a vote of 40-1, Senate Bill 116 now heads to the House for consideration. It’s the most high-profile piece of ethics legislation to pass the Senate this year. Because of the slow pace at which ethics reform has moved through the Senate, many have accused its leaders of trying to kill reform.
“This bill may not be perfect, but I think it’s an incredibly important first step in a direction this state needs to go,” Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said just before the vote. His was one of several bills that were folded into SB 116, which was sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. It was Wirth who carried the legislation on the Senate floor.
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 because the 2010 election cycle is already underway, so enacting limits now could give those who have already been raising money an unfair advantage.
A sunset clause that would have had the bill expire on Jan. 1, 2013 was removed by the Senate prior to the vote on the bill.
New Mexico is one of only a handful of states that doesn’t currently have some types of campaign contribution limits.
Removing the sunset clause was proposed by Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen. Gov. Bill Richardson had previously called for the removal of the clause, saying he didn’t want “temporary ethics reform.”
Sanchez said eliminating the sunset clause “avoids any skepticism on this issue,” and he said there would be other ways to review the contribution-limits law later, assuming it’s approved by the House and signed by the governor.
The one vote against the bill came from Rod Adair, R-Roswell, whose proposed amendment to ban contributions from lawyers to judicial candidates was rejected by the Senate as a separate issue that should be debated on its own merits.
Several senators said the bill wasn’t perfect even as they voted for it. Feldman called it an important step but not the last word.
“I think this is a long overdue bill,” she said. “… To the extent that we can limit the money that goes into campaigns, we should seize every opportunity to do it.”
Update, 2:35 p.m.
“Senate leadership should be commended for pushing through this bill,” said Steven Robert Allen, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico. “The bill was improved with two amendments, most notably by removing a sunset clause that would have repealed the law in 2013.”
Update, 4:10 p.m.
Richardson said in a news release that the Senate “took decisive action” in passing the contribution-limits bill, and he’s pleased that the sunset clause was removed. He also expressed concern about the fact that time is running out on the session and several other ethics-reform proposals are languishing.
“These bills deserve a vote by the full Senate and the House,” Richardson said.