{"id":1280,"date":"2007-02-19T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-19T18:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/senate-standing-in-the-way-of-ethics-reform\/"},"modified":"2007-02-19T12:46:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-19T18:46:00","slug":"senate-standing-in-the-way-of-ethics-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/senate-standing-in-the-way-of-ethics-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate standing in the way of ethics reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Resistance in the Senate may mean comprehensive ethics reform doesn\u2019t have a chance in the 2007 Legislature. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Shortly after being one of 20 Senators on Thursday to vote to kill a proposal to open legislative conference committees, Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a>, D-Belen, had this to say to the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> about ethics reform proposals:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason that people are mentioning ethics issues is because of one man who was not a member of the Legislature,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat did the Legislature do to warrant the push for change? \u2026 Give me something factually that we\u2019ve done to warrant all the changes that have been proposed.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sanchez made similar remarks during the conference committee debate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>He\u2019s wrong. There have been numerous scandals in the past year, touching all three branches of government, and they point to a need for a system-wide overhaul of ethics laws. The proposals don\u2019t single out the Legislature. They simply include it with the other two branches of government.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sampling of the scandals that pointed to a need for ethics reform in 2006. I\u2019ve written about these before, so I\u2019ll briefly mention them now. If you want to know more, find articles using the search engine in the top left corner of this page.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Former treasurers Michael Montoya and Robert Vigil are now convicted felons for their roles in abusing the authority of that office for personal gain.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 The state\u2019s housing authority system fell apart amid scandal after one of the seven regions defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. The scandal touches Speaker of the House Ben Lujan<\/a> (speaking of the Legislature), whose aide had been living rent-free in a home owned by the authority and who is close friends with man at the center of the scandal, who is currently the subject of a criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Lujan slipped $75 million into the 2006 capital outlay bill without knowledge of other lawmakers or public scrutiny.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Eric Serna, the former state insurance superintendent, resigned amid a conflict-of-interest scandal that included a large donor to and supporter of Gov. Bill Richardson.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Former Attorney General Patricia Madrid, during her failed bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., admitted that a $125,000 gift to her political action committee from Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino Owner Stan Fulton bought him access, beyond that enjoyed by average citizens, to share his concerns about a proposal to build a casino in Anthony.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 A former Espa\u00f1ola magistrate judge, Charles Maestas, had his rape conviction overturned because the statute under which he was convicted exempts judges.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 A former Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> magistrate judge, Carlos Garza, was removed from the bench for using cocaine.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s appointments of donors and family members to state jobs continue to create what could be viewed as an appearance of impropriety.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Former Senate President Manny Aragon (getting back to the Legislature) may be indicted after being implicated in a massive public corruption scandal involving the construction of law enforcement buildings in Bernalillo<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Still on the topic of the Legislature, Vigil\u2019s brother and sister-in-law made headlines last year after his sister-in-law, Roberta Vigil, spent almost $10,000 of taxpayer money secured with the help of her husband, Rep. Richard Vigil<\/a>, D-Ribera, on a private, invitation-only party under the guise of holding a workshop for employees of the West Las Vegas school district\u2019s bilingual education program. In addition, Richard Vigil got his wife more than $40,000 to buy furniture, a refrigerator, a big-screen television and other items for her office.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Which brings up the next point: What did the House Rules and Order of Business Committee, faced with such a potential misuse of money, do to investigate it? Nothing, though it\u2019s currently charged with such tasks when House members are involved.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The point is that 2006 revealed widespread, ethically challenged action in all branches of government that emphasizes the need for reform. Sanchez isn\u2019t ignorant or na\u00efve, and the other explanations for why he would make such false statements are few.<\/p>\n

\n

Do as I say, not as I do<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then again, there is reason for the Senate to be upset. The proposals are made by Gov. Bill Richardson, and he has had some trouble following his own advice. He told me during a trip to Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> last year that there should be a ban on corporate airline travel, only to be outed by the media shortly after that as accepting lots of free airline travel from a smokeless tobacco company.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> proposed this year a ban on gifts that would seem to include limousine travel. He proposed a ban on all gifts over $100 during the legislative session and $250 the rest of the time. Bills making their way through the legislative process actually propose a ban on gifts over $250 all the time.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Yet the newest lobbyist reports indicate that, on Feb. 1 in Las Cruces, Phelps Dodge Corp. lobbyist Dave Kimball spent $1,675 on a dinner and limousine for Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and other guests, the Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Is this one last hurrah for Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> before his own ethics proposals are enacted? Or are his proposals disingenuous?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

One thing is certain: His do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do attitude is giving fuel to the arguments of ethics reform opponents in the Legislature. Regardless, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s antics shouldn\u2019t be used as an excuse to not do the right thing.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What is most interesting is that the House, often the hotbed of shenanigans and politics at its worst, is in the process of approving the ethics bills, while the Senate has done almost nothing. Three of the seven bills in the House are already on their way to the floor, and the first will likely be approved today.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s apparent that House Majority Leader Ken Martinez\u2019s<\/a> challenge to Lujan\u2019s leadership has had an impact. Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is a proponent of reform and the driving force behind the proposals in the House.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing great momentum on the House side,\u201d said Matt Brix, director of New Mexico Common Cause and a member on the governor\u2019s ethics task force. \u201cMy hope is that we can continue some of that momentum and progress on the Senate side.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If only people like Sanchez weren\u2019t standing in the way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Resistance in the Senate may mean comprehensive ethics reform doesn\u2019t have a chance in the 2007 Legislature. Shortly after being one of 20 Senators on Thursday to vote to kill a proposal to open legislative conference committees, Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, had this to say to the Albuquerque Journal about ethics reform proposals: \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","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=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}