{"id":2777,"date":"2008-01-23T16:22:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-23T22:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/ethics-bills-introduced-as-push-for-reform-continues\/"},"modified":"2008-01-23T16:22:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-23T22:22:00","slug":"ethics-bills-introduced-as-push-for-reform-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/ethics-bills-introduced-as-push-for-reform-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics bills introduced as push for reform continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Some ethics-reform bills have been introduced in the Legislature in recent days and received the blessing of Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> to be considered during the 30-day session. <\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Senate Bill 264<\/a>, sponsored by Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a> of Belen, would place limits on campaign contributions to individuals equal to the federal limit, which is currently $2,300 for a primary and $2,300 for a general election.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 House Bill 309<\/a>, sponsored by Rep. Mary Helen Garcia<\/a>, D-Las Cruces, would create a state ethics commission to investigate complaints of ethical misconduct by public officials from all three branches of government. Its membership would be balanced between the two major political parties and consist of people appointed by the governor, legislative leaders from both parties and the chief justice of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 State Rep. Jose Campos<\/a>, D-Santa Rosa, introduced legislation today calling for a study on the possibly of creating a state commission to oversee elections in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The bill isn\u2019t yet online or I\u2019d provide a link to it.<\/p>\n

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

In addition, I\u2019m told that increased funding for the Secretary of State\u2019s online campaign finance reporting and disclosure system will be sought, but no bill has been introduced.<\/p>\n

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

Still, there is some movement on ethics bills, though they got a later start than most of the governor\u2019s other priorities. There\u2019s no word yet on whether anyone will introduce a bill to expand the state\u2019s public financing system \u2013 something Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said he would call for while he was on the presidential campaign trail but did not include on his list of ethics bills to push when the session started.<\/p>\n

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

House Speaker Ben Lujan<\/a>, who sponsored two public financing bills that were approved last year, said today he might introduce a bill to further expand the program during the current session.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s a short, 30-day session, but I still might look at it because I believe in that stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Lujan said he hasn\u2019t seen Sanchez\u2019s contribution-limits bill, but there was a dispute between the House and Senate last year over contribution limits. The House passed a bill that applied only to contributions to individuals, but the Senate wanted limits on contributions to individuals and political action committees.<\/p>\n

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

I don\u2019t know why, a year later, Sanchez\u2019s bill applies only to individuals, and I\u2019ve been unable to reach him for comment. But Lujan said if the Senate bill isn\u2019t acceptable he might have a contribution limit bill introduced in the House.<\/p>\n

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

The speaker also said he thinks there\u2019s an \u201cexcellent chance\u201d that the House will approve the ethics commission bill, which includes an appropriation of $500,000 for fiscal year 2009. The House approved creation of the commission last year but provided no funding to implement it. The Senate did not approve creation of the commission last year.<\/p>\n

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

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a> of Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> has introduced his own series of ethics bills. You can read more about that from the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

At the moment, there\u2019s a lot of focus from lobbyists and activists on public financing, especially since Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said on the campaign trail he would fight for it. Volunteers with the League of Women Voters lobbied Sanchez on Tuesday for a public financing bill. Here\u2019s a couple of photos from that meeting:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Update, 4:10 p.m.<\/p>\n

Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos released this statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Richardson supports public financing of campaigns and still plans to put the issue on the agenda for the session \u2013 as soon as today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some ethics-reform bills have been introduced in the Legislature in recent days and received the blessing of Gov. Bill Richardson to be considered during the 30-day session. \u2022 Senate Bill 264, sponsored by Majority Leader Michael Sanchez of Belen, would place limits on campaign contributions to individuals equal to the federal limit, which is currently […]<\/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-2777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777","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=2777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}