{"id":27203,"date":"2011-03-14T09:06:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T15:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27203"},"modified":"2011-03-15T08:39:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T14:39:22","slug":"martinez-heads-down-a-slippery-slope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/martinez-heads-down-a-slippery-slope\/","title":{"rendered":"Martinez heads down a slippery slope"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Though the secretary of state says it\u2019s legal for Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> to blur the line between lobbying the Legislature and campaigning, the situation has me questioning whether Martinez\u2019s actions match with her campaign rhetoric about ethical behavior.<\/p>\n

Early in the current legislative session, Martinez started webcasting legislative committee hearings<\/a> on her bills and using the video to promote her views. She angered many lawmakers by showing selective parts of some hearings and including commentary about how committee members voted.<\/p>\n

Taxpayers paid for that lobbying. The webcasting is being done by the webmaster in the governor\u2019s office. The video is being published on Martinez\u2019s official government website.<\/p>\n

But another aspect of Martinez\u2019s lobbying effort was paid for with campaign dollars.<\/p>\n

As part of her push<\/a> to pass a bill that would repeal the law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver\u2019s licenses, Martinez ran radio ads<\/a> urging people to call their lawmakers and tell them to stop blocking the bill.<\/p>\n

A couple of nonprofits complained that such use of campaign money violates the state\u2019s Campaign Reporting Act. Secretary of State Dianna Duran says the expense is legal<\/a>. I\u2019ve already written that the blurring of the line between campaigning and lobbying exposes a potential gray area in the law<\/a> and may indicate the need to tighten language in the Campaign Reporting Act.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a more concerning aspect to Martinez\u2019s using both taxpayer and campaign dollars for the same lobbying effort.<\/p>\n

Campaigning with public dollars?<\/h3>\n

Martinez argued, in her letter to Duran justifying the radio ads, that she\u2019s already in campaign mode \u2013 three months into her tenure and more than 3.5 years before the 2014 contest in which she\u2019s up for re-election. Running radio ads that lobby the Legislature on a policy issue promotes her position on that issue and bolsters her image, she says.<\/p>\n

Martinez is using public dollars on that very same lobbying effort with her webcasting. In addition, every time she holds a news conference or puts out a news release from her government office pushing a bill, she is, using her own logic, strengthening her image.<\/p>\n

So, following her own logic, does that mean Martinez is campaigning with public dollars when she webcasts or puts out a news release with taxpayer money?<\/p>\n

The reality is that Martinez is lobbying and campaigning at the same time. She\u2019s using both taxpayer money and campaign cash to do it. There is, at best, only a technical separation between her campaigning and lobbying.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s evidenced in the statement Martinez makes time and again about bills she\u2019s pushing. Though she clearly wants legislation passed, what she\u2019s been urging lawmakers to do is give her bills and up-or-down vote.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an implicit and political threat in urging an up-or-down vote: Pass my bills or get on the record as opposing them so I can use it against you in the next election.<\/p>\n

No separation between lobbying and campaigning.<\/p>\n

Openly blurring the line<\/h3>\n

A lack of separation between campaigning and governing is nothing new. For example, former Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>, former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> and others have appeared in TV ads promoting the work of state agencies and paid for by taxpayers.<\/p>\n

There was no good reason for Denish to appear in taxpayer-funded ads about education, except that it increased her statewide name recognition and improved her image as she ran for governor. But the thinly veiled campaign ad doubled as a public service ad, so taxpayer dollars were used to fund it.<\/p>\n

Perhaps sensing an ethical quandary, others have pretended they weren\u2019t blurring the line between campaigning and doing the work of their government jobs.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s different in Martinez\u2019s case is that, with her assertion that she\u2019s campaigning when she urges the public to lobby the Legislature, Martinez is openly blurring the line.<\/p>\n

On one hand, you could say Martinez is being more transparent by admitting what she\u2019s doing. On the other hand, it\u2019s concerning that she doesn\u2019t appear to have any qualms about it.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Martinez is just embracing the reality of how things work today, and being transparent about it instead of trying to mask it. But it doesn\u2019t sit right with me.<\/p>\n

Doing things differently?<\/h3>\n

The blurring of the line between campaigning and governing seems to me to be a slippery slope. When you can spend taxpayer and campaign dollars on the same lobbying effort, maybe you can also justify spending taxpayer dollars on other things that are more about re-election than they are about doing the public\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

Many blur this line. But didn\u2019t Martinez promise to do things differently than Richardson and Denish?<\/p>\n

Haussamen bio<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Commentary page<\/a> \u2502\u00a0Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though the secretary of state says it\u2019s legal for Gov. Susana Martinez to blur the line between lobbying the Legislature and campaigning, the situation has me questioning whether Martinez\u2019s actions match with her campaign rhetoric about ethical behavior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-27203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27203","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=27203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}