{"id":1408,"date":"2007-03-14T15:07:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-14T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/ethics-reform-bills-slowly-progressing-as-time-runs-out\/"},"modified":"2007-03-14T15:07:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-14T21:07:00","slug":"ethics-reform-bills-slowly-progressing-as-time-runs-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/ethics-reform-bills-slowly-progressing-as-time-runs-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics reform bills slowly progressing as time runs out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It looks like the push to approve a series of ethics reform bills will come down to the wire. <\/p>\n

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

On Monday, the Senate approved Senate Bill 931<\/a>, sponsored by John Grubesic<\/a>, D-Santa Fe, which would place limits on gifts to elected officials and candidates. On Tuesday, it approved Senate Bill 800<\/a>, sponsored by Sen. Dede Feldman<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, which places lifts on campaign contributions to candidates for offices and political action committees.<\/p>\n

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

But the two bills haven\u2019t yet made their way on to the calendar in the House, and the Senate hasn\u2019t approved any other bills \u2013 House or Senate versions \u2013 in the ethics reform package.<\/p>\n

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

However, three House ethics bills are on the Senate calendar today, along with 112 other bills. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a>, D-Belen, has hinted that the Senate may not adjourn until the early hours of Thursday as it works through the lengthy agenda.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen momentum in the last two days,\u201d said Matt Brix, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping we can keep the momentum strong and hopefully pass a couple more ethics bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s not clear when the House bills will be heard in the Senate. Here\u2019s where the four with the best chance of passing stand:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 House Bill 821<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Mimi Stewart<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, is similar to Feldman\u2019s bill and is No. 83 on today\u2019s Senate calendar. There\u2019s one major difference between the House and Senate versions: The House version applies only to contributions to candidates, while the Senate version applies to contributions to candidates and PACs. This is sure to be a contentious difference.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 House Bill 819<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Gail Chasey<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, is similar to Grubesic\u2019s bill and is No. 85 on today\u2019s Senate calendar.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 House Bill 818<\/a>, sponsored by Speaker of the House Ben Lujan<\/a>, D-Namb\u00e9, would create a public financing system for statewide and judicial candidates similar to the system already in place for Public Regulation Commission races. It\u2019s bogged down along with hundreds of other bills in the Senate Finance Committee. <\/p>\n

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

\u2022 House Bill 823<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, would make several amendments to the Governmental Conduct Act. It would require that public officials disclose, in cases of contracts and other business with the state, not only their own business but also that of spouses, children, parents and siblings. It also makes the act apply to judges, who are currently exempt from its provision that prohibits bribery.<\/p>\n

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

Cervantes\u2019 bill has been on the Senate\u2019s daily calendar for several days. It climbed as high as No. 32 on Tuesday, but has fallen to No. 62 on today\u2019s calendar.<\/p>\n

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

The Senate skips around, so that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean much.<\/p>\n

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

But I\u2019m baffled that this bill hasn\u2019t yet been approved, as it\u2019s probably the least controversial of all bills in the ethics reform package. There have been two recent examples of why judges shouldn\u2019t be exempt from the act. A bribery charge against a former judge in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> was dismissed because judges are exempt from the statute, and another in Espa\u00f1ola had his conviction on the bribery statute overturned because of the exemption.<\/p>\n

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

The bill was approved unanimously by the House and Senate last year, but minor differences between the versions of the bill weren\u2019t resolved by the Legislature before time expired on the 2006 session.<\/p>\n

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

As for the House, there\u2019s no word yet on when the two Senate bills will appear on its calendar. Grubesic\u2019s is awaiting a hearing in the first of two committees it must pass before heading to the House floor. Feldman\u2019s hasn\u2019t yet been assigned to any House committees.<\/p>\n

\n

The session ends at noon on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It looks like the push to approve a series of ethics reform bills will come down to the wire. On Monday, the Senate approved Senate Bill 931, sponsored by John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe, which would place limits on gifts to elected officials and candidates. On Tuesday, it approved Senate Bill 800, sponsored by Sen. Dede […]<\/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-1408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408","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=1408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}