{"id":35166,"date":"2012-01-13T14:48:47","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T21:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=35166"},"modified":"2012-01-17T03:57:59","modified_gmt":"2012-01-17T10:57:59","slug":"guv-oks-consideration-of-campaign-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/01\/guv-oks-consideration-of-campaign-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv OKs consideration of campaign reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_11202\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11202\" title=\"Martinez, Susana\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Martinez-Susana-300x263.jpg\" alt=\"Gov. Susana Martinez\" width=\"300\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Martinez-Susana-300x263.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/Martinez-Susana.jpg 325w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Gov. <a href=\"http:\/\/governor.state.nm.us\/\" target=\"_blank\">Susana Martinez<\/a> will allow lawmakers to consider bills related to fixing New Mexico\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sos.state.nm.us\/pdf\/2009CampaignPractices.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Campaign Reporting Act<\/a> during the session that begins next week.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell said today that Martinez won\u2019t propose specific legislation but will \u201cmessage election reform broadly to allow discussion of campaign finance-related legislation\u201d during the 30-day session that starts Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>30-day sessions are designed for budgetary issues. To be considered, other topics need to be allowed by the governor.<\/p>\n<p>With the 2012 election in full swing, addressing the situation is urgent. As NMPolitics.net <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/10\/%e2%80%98unenforceable%e2%80%99-campaign-law-a-worry-headed-into-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\">reported in October<\/a>, recent court decisions have rendered the state\u2019s campaign-finance law \u201cunenforceable,\u201d in the words of one good-government activist. The issues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has deemed New Mexico\u2019s definition of a political committee <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ca10.uscourts.gov\/opinions\/09\/09-2212.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cconstitutionally infirm.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0That happened in 2010 when the 10th Circuit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/06\/appeals-court-backs-nonprofits-in-fight-with-ag-sos\/\" target=\"_blank\">upheld a lower court\u2019s rejection<\/a>\u00a0of an attempt by the secretary of state and attorney general to force two nonprofits to register as political committees.<\/li>\n<li>The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission\" target=\"_blank\">the Citizens United case<\/a> means states can no longer limit the size of donations being spent on independent expenditures, so New Mexico\u2019s law limiting such donations isn\u2019t constitutional.\u00a0Last week, a federal judge <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/01\/judge-puts-parts-of-contribution-limits-law-on-hold\/\" target=\"_blank\">issued a preliminary injunction<\/a> against enforcement of state limits on financial contributions to be used in federal campaigns and for independent expenditures in state races. \u00a0A state GOP lawsuit seeking to permanently undo those and other parts of the state\u2019s contribution-limits law is pending.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At the very least, activists say disclosure laws need beefed up to ensure the public knows who\u2019s spending money on campaigns.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Sen.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=SWIRT\" target=\"_blank\">Peter Wirth<\/a>, D-Santa Fe, is among the lawmakers working to address the situation. In last year\u2019s regular legislative session, he sponsored\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/_session.aspx?Chamber=S&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=547&amp;year=11\" target=\"_blank\">a bill<\/a>\u00a0that would have amended the Campaign Reporting Act to require disclosure of independent expenditures, rewrite the definition of \u201cpolitical committee,\u201d and tweak the law in other ways. It passed the Senate but died in the House.<\/p>\n<p>Wirth plans to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/_session.aspx?chamber=S&amp;legtype=B&amp;legno=%20%2011&amp;year=12\" target=\"_blank\">try again<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n<p>Darnell has said Martinez \u201cbelieves strongly that the public has a right to know who is funding political campaigns and has always gone above and beyond in disclosing contributors,\u201d and that she \u201cis willing to work with anyone sincerely committed to improving our campaign finance laws to ensure that the voices of candidates and political parties are not drowned out by special interest groups operating in secret.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the governor isn\u2019t putting her weight behind campaign-related legislation from Wirth or anyone else, at least right now.<\/p>\n<h3>Martinez backing sunshine bills<\/h3>\n<p>Though she\u2019s currently staying on the sidelines in the discussion about campaign reform, Martinez is backing a pair of government transparency proposals that she will allow to be considered during the session:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=HSMIJ\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Smith<\/a>, R-Sandia Park, is sponsoring <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/_session.aspx?chamber=H&amp;legtype=B&amp;legno=%20%2035&amp;year=12\" target=\"_blank\">legislation<\/a> that would require that agendas for public meetings be posted online and made available at least 72 hours beforehand.<\/li>\n<li>Sen. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/legdetails.aspx?SPONCODE=SSRUE\" target=\"_blank\">Sander Rue<\/a>, R-Albuquerque, is sponsoring <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/_session.aspx?chamber=S&amp;legtype=B&amp;legno=%20%2030&amp;year=12\" target=\"_blank\">a bill<\/a> that would make clear in law that the names of classified state employees will be included in the sunshine portal \u2013 though Martinez\u2019s administration has already done that without the law explicitly allowing it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Susana Martinez will allow lawmakers to consider bills related to fixing New Mexico\u2019s Campaign Reporting Act during the session that begins next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,223,109,111,107],"class_list":["post-35166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-campaign-finance","tag-ethics-reform","tag-open-government","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35166","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=35166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}