{"id":2898,"date":"2008-02-20T13:24:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-20T19:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/new-mexico-voters-will-have-to-force-ethics-reform\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:47:18","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:47:18","slug":"new-mexico-voters-will-have-to-force-ethics-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/02\/new-mexico-voters-will-have-to-force-ethics-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico voters will have to force ethics reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year of work by the governor\u2019s ethics task force and a legislative subcommittee to help build consensus on ethics reform, the New Mexico Legislature<\/a> adjourned last week with no major reform being approved.<\/p>\n

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

It was the latest disappointing chapter in what has, thus far, been a mostly unsuccessful effort to reform the state\u2019s tainted political system. Though activists have been pushing for four years, major reform proposals including enacting campaign contributions limits, creating a state ethics commission, paying a salary to lawmakers and expanding the public financing system to include statewide offices are left undone.<\/p>\n

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

There has been a little progress. Legislators approved in 2006 a law that places limits on gifts to public officials and candidates for office, but it\u2019s a weak law that hasn\u2019t actually reduced lobbyist spending. They approved a state whistleblower law, made changes to the Governmental Conduct Act that included making it illegal for judges to solicit or accept bribes, and created a public-financing system for elections for the Public Regulation Commission, Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

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

But those are baby steps. Consider the proof that far-reaching, systemic reform is necessary:<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 The past two state treasurers have been convicted on federal public-corruption charges.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 The former Senate president and others are facing federal charges and accused of bilking taxpayers out of $4.2 million.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 Most of the state\u2019s affordable housing system has collapsed under a scandal that involved the defaulting on $5 million in bonds, and a criminal investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n

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

\u2022 The governor, land commissioner and former attorney general have all been criticized for creating the appearance that they allow public-policy decisions to be influenced by campaign contributions.<\/p>\n

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

New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> has serious problems, and most of its leaders aren\u2019t pushing for serious solutions. Though Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> publicly called during this year\u2019s session for campaign contributions limits, an ethics commission that would have enforcement and education duties and expansion of the public financing system, it appears that his push wasn\u2019t genuine. Lawmakers say he didn\u2019t lobby for approval of ethics bills in private meetings. His ethics proposals weren\u2019t introduced until later than his other priorities. During some press conferences, he didn\u2019t even seem to know the status of his own ethics bills.<\/p>\n

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

The House approved only one reform proposal this session, creation of the ethics commission, but it didn\u2019t do that until after the bill sat in one committee for more than half the session. By the time it was approved, there was little time for the Senate to act, so the proposal died. The Senate only approved one reform proposal, the enacting of campaign contribution limits. The bill took most of the session to get to the Senate floor, then sat on the calendar for two days without being scheduled for a vote. It didn\u2019t pass the Senate until two hours before the end of the session, giving the House no time to consider it.<\/p>\n

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

Election-year politics<\/span><\/p>\n

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

But now senators can say, while campaigning during this election year, that they support contribution limits, and representatives can say they support an ethics commission. They accomplished nothing, but they\u2019ll be able to say they at least tried.<\/p>\n

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

This is basic stuff. The federal government and all but four states have contribution limits. The vast majority of states also have some sort of ethics commission. But New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> can\u2019t seem to join the civilized world when it comes to governmental ethics.<\/p>\n

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

State Rep. Joseph Cervantes<\/a>, one of the few lawmakers who openly fought for reform this year, said the public, media and politicians must do more for ethics reform to become a reality. He said three factors led to the dearth of ethics reform this session.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cNo. 1, the public has not forced the issue. No. 2, the public has not been informed of the reasons why the reforms are needed, and the third is there was no genuine effort (on the part of most elected officials),\u201d Cervantes said.<\/p>\n

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

After four years, it doesn\u2019t appear there will be a genuine effort unless the state\u2019s politicians are forced to do it. Hopefully, voters will compel them in this election year to take the issue more seriously.<\/p>\n

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

\n

A version of this article was published today on the Diary of a Mad Voter<\/a> blog published by the Denver Post\u2019s Politics West<\/a> and the independent Web site NewWest.net<\/a>. I have slightly reworded a paraphrased quote from Cervantes in this posting to clarify its meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a year of work by the governor\u2019s ethics task force and a legislative subcommittee to help build consensus on ethics reform, the New Mexico Legislature adjourned last week with no major reform being approved. It was the latest disappointing chapter in what has, thus far, been a mostly unsuccessful effort to reform the state\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haussamen-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2898","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=2898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}