{"id":2787,"date":"2008-01-28T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-28T18:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/group-wants-legislators-to-back-public-financing\/"},"modified":"2008-01-28T12:27:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-28T18:27:00","slug":"group-wants-legislators-to-back-public-financing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/group-wants-legislators-to-back-public-financing\/","title":{"rendered":"Group wants legislators to back public financing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Common Cause New Mexico<\/a> on Friday passed out its Voters First Pledge<\/a> to every state lawmaker, asking them to promise to support voluntary public financing for statewide races. <\/p>\n

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

The group will begin lobbying lawmakers today to sign the pledge. Common Cause\u2019s planned 2008 ethics reform scorecard will grade lawmakers based in part on whether they sign the pledge.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe public is losing faith in the political process. Some politicians appear to care more about what lobbyists and powerful interests think than about the pressing problems faced by most New Mexicans,\u201d the pledge states. \u201cVoters are tired of \u2018politics as usual.\u2019 We want solutions that improve fairness in campaign fundraising and allow new voices and ideas to be heard. We want an end to the headlines about scandals involving the powerful interests and lobbyists in Santa Fe<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> and across the state. We want more access to the people we elect to serve our interests. In short, we want a democracy that works.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cPowerful interests and lobbyists spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to gain access to elected officials and are rewarded with millions of taxpayer dollars in return. Possible leaders for tomorrow who refuse to play this game or do not have access to these dollars cannot get a start in politics today,\u201d the pledge states. \u201cFor the sake of our state\u2019s future, vision and voters should matter more than donors and their dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIn 2008, New Mexican voters are demanding real change that goes beyond empty slogans and partial measures,\u201d the pledge states. \u201cToward this end, we urge all legislators to sign the Voters First Pledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cBy signing below,\u201d the pledge states, \u201cI pledge to put voters first and will work to pass and enforce legislation for full voluntary public campaign financing for statewide offices, extending the legislation already in place for New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> appellate court judge races and the Public Regulation Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n

It will be interesting to see who signs this. It\u2019s further evidence that lawmakers will have a difficult time ignoring ethics reform during the current session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Common Cause New Mexico on Friday passed out its Voters First Pledge to every state lawmaker, asking them to promise to support voluntary public financing for statewide races. The group will begin lobbying lawmakers today to sign the pledge. Common Cause\u2019s planned 2008 ethics reform scorecard will grade lawmakers based in part on whether they […]<\/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-2787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787","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=2787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}