{"id":2778,"date":"2008-01-24T09:35:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-24T15:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/lawmakers-wont-be-able-to-ignore-ethics-reform\/"},"modified":"2008-01-24T09:35:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-24T15:35:00","slug":"lawmakers-wont-be-able-to-ignore-ethics-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/lawmakers-wont-be-able-to-ignore-ethics-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers won’t be able to ignore ethics reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Lawmakers hoping the ethics-reform front would remain quiet during this session \u2013 and this election year \u2013 aren\u2019t going to get their wish.<\/p>\n

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

Legislative leaders had an initial plan to consider only four issues \u2013 contribution limits, an ethics commission, funding for the Secretary of State\u2019s online reporting and disclosure system and a study on the possibility of creating an election commission. Activists are complaining that it isn\u2019t enough. They\u2019re drawing attention to ethics reform and, it appears, having some success in shifting the debate.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> on Wednesday said he will allow debate on public financing during the session, and Speaker Ben Lujan<\/a> said he might introduce a bill to expand the state\u2019s public-financing system.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a> is apparently reworking a contribution limits bill he introduced that, in its current form, would only place limits on contributions to individuals \u2013 not political action committees and parties \u2013 and would do nothing to address the state\u2019s weak reporting laws.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Common Cause New Mexico<\/a> announced Wednesday that it will issue a report card grading legislators on how they vote on ethics bills after the session ends. An environmental group that does something similar each year successfully puts a lot of public pressure on lawmakers to back its bills.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Senate Bill 312<\/a>, sponsored by Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a>, is attracting bipartisan support. It would increase the frequency of required finance reports in off-years from annually to quarterly. It would also require the reporting, within 24 hours, of contributions over $250 made in the final days of an election.<\/p>\n

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

The bill would address some of the flaws in reporting laws that Sanchez\u2019s current bill does not. We don\u2019t yet know what changes Sanchez is making to his bill.<\/p>\n

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

But Sen. Dede Feldman<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, has signed on to Rawson\u2019s bill, and Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> told The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a> that it has an excellent chance of passing the Senate. Denish, a 2010 gubernatorial candidate, began voluntarily releasing quarterly finance reports to the public last year even though the law didn\u2019t require it since it wasn\u2019t an election year.<\/p>\n

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

The media is also pitching in to bring attention to ethics reform. Steve Terrell of The New Mexican highlighted much of what\u2019s happening in two articles that ran in today\u2019s edition. (The first link is above. Click here to read the second<\/a>.) A reporter from the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> has also been hounding officials in Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> about ethics reform.<\/p>\n

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

Terrell highlighted an October report<\/a> from the California Voter Foundation and other groups that graded states\u2019 disclosure laws. New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> was one of 14 states to receive an \u201cF.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

All the attention means that lawmakers aren\u2019t going to be able to avoid ethics reform in this election year. At least six lawmakers \u2013 Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia<\/a>, House Minority Whip Dan Foley<\/a>, Rep. Joni Gutierrez<\/a>, Sen. Rod Adair<\/a>, Sen. Linda Lopez<\/a> and Sen. James Taylor<\/a> \u2013 are facing primary challenges this year. They and other lawmakers get to finish out the remainder of this 30-day session knowing the attention on ethics reform isn\u2019t going away, and that they\u2019re going to be graded on their dedication to ethics reform in a very public way before the primaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers hoping the ethics-reform front would remain quiet during this session \u2013 and this election year \u2013 aren\u2019t going to get their wish. Legislative leaders had an initial plan to consider only four issues \u2013 contribution limits, an ethics commission, funding for the Secretary of State\u2019s online reporting and disclosure system and a study on […]<\/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-2778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778","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=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}