{"id":11604,"date":"2010-01-19T08:11:41","date_gmt":"2010-01-19T15:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=11604"},"modified":"2010-01-20T03:57:14","modified_gmt":"2010-01-20T10:57:14","slug":"webcasting-liveblogging-part-of-session-once-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/01\/webcasting-liveblogging-part-of-session-once-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Webcasting, liveblogging part of session once again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Candy Spence Ezzell, shown here, was one of three GOP House members who webcast committee meetings last year. She and Reps. Dennis Kintigh and Janice Arnold-Jones plan to do it again this year. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Three GOP House members, New Mexico Independent, others working to make Santa Fe more transparent and accessible<\/h4>\n

State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones<\/a> will once again be carrying a webcam and microphone with her during the legislative session that begins today so she can webcast committee meetings.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll be webcasting live from two committees she sits on \u2013 the House Taxation and Revenue Committee<\/a>, which tentatively meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:30 p.m., and the Voters and Elections Committee<\/a>, which tentatively meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

Committee meetings in Santa Fe never start on time. Arnold-Jones plans to tweet the actual start times every day through her new Twitter account \u2013 @LadySunshineNM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The webcasts will be shown live at nmgov.tv<\/a>. Arnold-Jones invited those watching to e-mail her at jearnoldjones@aol.com<\/a> or find their lawmaker\u2019s e-mail address at nmlegis.gov<\/a> to share input.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when we, as legislators, are\u00a0tasked with plugging budget holes, citizen input is vital to finding the best solutions,\u201d Arnold-Jones, who\u2019s also a Republican gubernatorial candidate, said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Two other Republican House members \u2013 Dennis Kintigh<\/a> and Candy Spence Ezzell<\/a> \u2013 will be webcasting their committee meetings<\/a> as well. Both followed Arnold-Jones\u2019 lead in webcasting\u00a0committee\u00a0meetings during last year\u2019s session.<\/p>\n

The webcasting by Ezzell, Kintigh and Arnold-Jones \u2013 who was dubbed Lady Sunlight<\/a> last year by the Santa Fe Reporter for her move to bring webcasting to the Legislature \u2013 is just one of many efforts you\u2019ll see in the next month to bring greater transparency to Santa Fe and pass new ethics reform measures.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Independent, with the help of journalists from other news outlets, will be liveblogging<\/a> from Santa Fe every day. Yep, every day. That lets you take part in the conversation in a forum many lawmakers and others in Santa Fe are also participating in, or at least keeping their eyes on.<\/p>\n

The liveblogging starts today with the governor\u2019s state of the state address.<\/p>\n

In addition, this is the first full regular session with official audio webcasting from the House floor and video webcasting from the Senate floor. That webcasting will be available on the Legislature\u2019s Web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Expect a resolution in the Senate that would expand that chamber\u2019s video webcasting. Expect resistance to passing it, too.<\/p>\n

Ethics reform proposals<\/h3>\n

Beyond that, The Santa Fe New Mexican\u2019s Kate Nash<\/a> has the goods on what to expect in terms of ethics reform:<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready, several lawmakers have prefiled ethics bills online while other public officials have outlined what measures they are willing to support.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, they include an ethics commission, a ban on former lawmakers becoming lobbyists within a year of public service, and disclosures by and limits on state contractors who contribute to public officials.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ethics commission is likely to be the hottest ethics-reform bill, and a proposal to ban campaign contributions from state contractors and lobbyists should also get a lot of attention.<\/p>\n

However, the budget will obviously take center stage in this legislative session, with lawmakers facing a shortfall of several hundred million dollars. Common Cause\u2019s Steve Allen told Nash that 2010 could be a hard year to win approval of new ethics reforms for that reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough environment to ask for any bill that involves an appropriation. It\u2019s very important for the state to get its financial books in order. I understand that,\u201d Nash quoted Allen as saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s also important to understand that type of corruption we\u2019ve seen has a negative fiscal impact on our state in terms of businesses wanting to locate here, a fair economic environment and overall economic development,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

In spite of the budget crunch, ethics reform is a hot topic. State Auditor Hector Balderas has laid out his ethics reform proposals<\/a>, as have Attorney General Gary King<\/a>, Lt. Gov.Diane Denish<\/a> \u2013 the likely Democratic nominee for governor \u2013 and Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Will the state move forward in terms of ethics and transparency this year? Time will tell. Thanks to Arnold-Jones, Ezzell, Kintigh, the Independent (a site I work for) and others for helping the rest of us keep up with what\u2019s happening and take part in the debate.<\/p>\n

At a time when lawmakers are deciding what programs to cut and\/or what taxes to raise, that level of transparency and accessibility may be more critical than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Reps. Janice Arnold-Jones, Candy Spence Ezzell and Dennis Kintigh plan to webcast committee meetings during the legislative session that starts today. The New Mexico Independent plans liveblogs every day. And ethics reform is a hot topic as policymakers descend on the Roundhouse.<\/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":[109,111,107],"class_list":["post-11604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-ethics-reform","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11604","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=11604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11604\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}