In 2007, the New Mexico Senate voted down a proposal to open legislative conference committees to the public. It was the third time in two years the proposal died. This time, it failed by one vote.<\/p>\n
The proposal had already passed the House and was supported by the governor. One more vote in the Senate and legislative conference committees would now be open to the public.<\/p>\n As a result of a strong showing by progressive legislative candidates in Tuesday\u2019s primary election, there\u2019s a good chance the Senate will succumb in 2009 to transparency and accountability and vote to open legislative conference committees. In fact, Tuesday\u2019s election went a long way toward rekindling hope of ethics reform in I\u2019m not a Democrat and don\u2019t consider myself a \u201cprogressive\u201d in the left-wing-of-the-Democratic-Party sense of the word, but one area where I do agree with this growing force in New Mexico politics is on the need for ethics reform. I\u2019ve written repeatedly<\/a> about the need for reforms in Santa Fe that include paying lawmakers, instituting campaign contribution limits, creating a state ethics commission and opening conference committees to the public.<\/p>\n The 2007 Legislature was the best chance for reform in recent memory. Lobbyists pushing reform were organized. A strong coalition of House Democrats and Republicans agreed to several proposals. Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> actively pushed reform.<\/p>\n Despite all that, little of any significance was accomplished, largely because the Senate killed most proposals.<\/p>\n This year, there was no movement on ethics reform. The governor gave only lip service to it and the House approved a couple of proposals knowing they were dead on arrival in the Senate.<\/p>\n Reform has been killed by a group of senators who are more interested in their power struggle with the governor than the fact that polls have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of New Mexicans want ethics reform.<\/p>\n Voters send clear message to lawmakers<\/span><\/p>\n On Tuesday, Democratic voters in Progressive challenger Eric Griego<\/a> secured 63 percent of the vote in knocking off Sen. James Taylor<\/a>. Progressive Tim Keller<\/a> secured 66 percent of the vote in ousting Shannon Robinson<\/a>, a 20-year senator and one of the most ethically challenged lawmakers<\/a> in the state.<\/p>\n Ethics reform wasn\u2019t the only reason the incumbents lost. Progressives have become a well-organized force in Another progressive candidate in Albuquerque, Eleanor Chavez<\/a>, secured 54 percent of the vote in toppling state Rep. Dan Silva<\/a>, the Democratic chairman of the House transportation committee. In addition, in conservative In this year of change, voters in