{"id":2248,"date":"2007-09-17T12:06:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-17T18:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/approving-ethics-reform-is-the-right-thing-to-do\/"},"modified":"2007-09-17T12:06:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-17T18:06:00","slug":"approving-ethics-reform-is-the-right-thing-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/approving-ethics-reform-is-the-right-thing-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Approving ethics reform is the right thing to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I didn\u2019t realize that 88 percent of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s Democrats are members of the media and special interest groups. <\/p>\n

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

But that\u2019s apparently what state Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a>, D-Belen, believes. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>, Sanchez said during Friday\u2019s meeting of the legislative Ethics Subcommittee<\/a> that only special interest groups and the media are pushing certain ethics reform proposals.<\/p>\n

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

A recent Albuquerque Journal poll<\/a>, however, found that 88 percent of members of Sanchez\u2019s political party in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> want ethics reform. And they didn\u2019t just vaguely agree to the general concept: Those 88 percent answered \u201cyes\u201d when asked specifically if they want reforms including campaign contribution limits, new restrictions on lobbyists and creation of a state ethics commission.<\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s an overwhelming majority. When was the last time that many Democrats in this state agreed on anything, besides perhaps a desire to get out of Iraq<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>?<\/p>\n

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

Sanchez wasn\u2019t the only one at Friday\u2019s meeting to point the finger at the media and other groups. House Minority Whip Dan Foley<\/a>, according to the newspaper, agreed that the pressure is coming from public advocacy groups and the media.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cBut less and less is required of the media,\u201d the newspaper quoted Foley as saying. \u201cNobody\u2019s calling to find out about these media outlets. … Is there a way to provide a requirement of more disclosure for the media? They should be required to disclose as much as they\u2019re saying we should. What\u2019s good for the goose is good for the gander.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

That\u2019s the sort of tactic Sen. John Arthur Smith<\/a> took during this year\u2019s session in arguing against open conference committees<\/a>. It\u2019s a bogus argument: Media outlets aren\u2019t funded with taxpayer dollars. Government is. It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

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

I understand Foley is under fire in his community of Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> from a newspaper whose publisher runs in Democratic circles and hasn\u2019t disclosed her personal campaign contributions on the newspaper\u2019s editorial page. I\u2019m not saying Foley doesn\u2019t have a valid reason to be frustrated. But the comparison isn\u2019t a valid argument against ethics reform in state government.<\/p>\n

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

According to the New Mexican, Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle<\/a> of Portales jumped on that train of discussion, however, by saying that he has known \u201cvery few (legislators) who aren\u2019t ethical,\u201d but he said \u201ca list of honest people wouldn\u2019t make the newspapers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

First of all, should we, following that logic, get rid of laws that make homicide illegal because very few people commit murder?<\/p>\n

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

Second, and, again, with all due respect, at least two media outlets \u2013 this site<\/a> and the Farmington Daily Times<\/a> \u2013 recently reported on House Minority Leader Tom Taylor<\/a> donating land to San Juan County for a meth treatment facility out of the goodness of his heart and to avoid the appearance of impropriety that might come with selling the land to the county.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Legislature has ethical problems<\/span><\/p>\n

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

But the reality is that there are some ethical problems that need addressed. It was common during this year\u2019s session for opponents of ethics reform to say the Legislature had no problems. At the time, Rep. Richard Vigil<\/a> was already embroiled in a scandal that has since resulted in the indictments of his wife and others on felony charges for, in part, misusing capital outlay money he appropriated to them.<\/p>\n

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

Since then, former Senate President Manny Aragon has been indicted in the Bernalillo County Metro Court scandal<\/a>, and I\u2019ve reported on the inappropriate actions Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia<\/a>, who hauled state officials from Santa Fe to a meeting in Las Cruces weeks after her bar was cited for serving an intoxicated person so she and other industry representatives and lawmakers from around the state could berate them, accuse them of unfair treatment and complain about overly strict regulations.<\/p>\n

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

Clearly, the Legislature is not immune from the ethical problems that have plagued the executive and judicial branches of state government in recent years.<\/p>\n

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

A presenter at Friday\u2019s meeting was right on in her response to the statements of lawmakers.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t (pass legislation) because of pressure,\u201d said Peggy Kerns, director of the National Conference of State Legislatures\u2019 Center for Ethics in Government<\/a>. \u201cYou should be doing it because it\u2019s the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

She\u2019s right. It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn\u2019t realize that 88 percent of New Mexico\u2019s Democrats are members of the media and special interest groups. But that\u2019s apparently what state Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, believes. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Sanchez said during Friday\u2019s meeting of the legislative Ethics Subcommittee that only special interest groups and the […]<\/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-2248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248","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=2248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}