{"id":10568,"date":"2009-12-22T17:41:19","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T00:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10568"},"modified":"2009-12-22T19:15:21","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T02:15:21","slug":"denish-won%e2%80%99t-raise-money-during-legislative-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/denish-won%e2%80%99t-raise-money-during-legislative-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Denish won\u2019t raise money during legislative session"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Diane

Diane Denish<\/p><\/div>\n

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> says she will not raise money during the upcoming session of the New Mexico Legislature, continuing a voluntary policy she\u2019s practiced during her time in office.<\/p>\n

By law, the governor and lawmakers can\u2019t raise money during legislative sessions, but Denish, the only Democratic candidate for governor, is not prohibited, she said in a news release. However, according to the release, \u201cDenish has always believed that it\u2019s important to lead by example.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the legislature is in session, I believe our focus must be solely on the issues important to\u00a0New Mexico families, not campaign fundraising,\u201d Denish said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I go beyond what the law requires and have consistently chosen not to solicit contributions during legislative session. The fact that this is an election year changes nothing \u2013 the people\u2019s business always comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denish Campaign Manager Oren Shur said the state should also \u201clook at making changes to ensure that everyone is playing by the same rules.\u201d One gubernatorial candidate \u2013 state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a>, R-Albuquerque \u2013 is prohibited by law from raising money during the session, while the other candidates are not.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the meantime, the Republican candidates have an opportunity to take the same voluntary step and send an important message to the people of\u00a0New Mexico,\u201d Shur said. \u201cThe Republicans\u00a0like to talk about taking the high road, but when presented with an opportunity to back it up with action, they suddenly become pretty quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Arnold-Jones is already barred from raising money for the session, I didn\u2019t ask her to comment on the challenge from Shur. I sent an e-mail to the others, and I\u2019ll let you know if they do comment.<\/p>\n

Denish also announced recently that she will voluntarily release a quarterly campaign-finance report in January. She\u2019s been releasing the reports more often than the law requires for some time. I recently asked the Republican gubernatorial candidates in an e-mail if any would match Denish in releasing a finance report in January. None have responded.<\/p>\n

Update, 6 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Turner<\/a> said the prohibition on fundraising during sessions should apply to anyone who has influence over legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to raise money during the session. I raised money during the special session, I\u2019m going to raise money during the next session,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m unelected, I can\u2019t vote on anything, so I\u2019m going to keep pounding away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Update, 7:15 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arnold-Jones\u2019 campaign pointed me to a Monday news release in which she called for a rule change to make the fundraising prohibition during sessions apply to all candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a state representative, I am the only candidate prohibited from raising campaign funds throughout the legislative session. Those rules do not apply to the lieutenant governor, yet she presides over and has voting rights in the Senate,\u201d Arnold-Jones said in that release. \u201cIn fact, those rules do not apply to any of my competitors in any way and they should. It is important we are all playing by the same rules on the same field.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: Lt. Gov. Diane Denish says she will not raise money during the upcoming session of the New Mexico Legislature, continuing a voluntary policy she\u2019s practiced during her time in office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,106,107],"class_list":["post-10568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-diane-denish","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}