{"id":3552,"date":"2008-08-11T00:25:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-11T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/nonprofit-says-ag-is-inviting-an-unnecessary-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2008-08-11T00:25:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-11T06:25:00","slug":"nonprofit-says-ag-is-inviting-an-unnecessary-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/nonprofit-says-ag-is-inviting-an-unnecessary-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Nonprofit says AG is inviting an ‘unnecessary’ lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

A nonprofit facing the possibility of being forced to comply with the state\u2019s campaign finance reporting law threatened on Saturday to sue if that happens.<\/p>\n

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

New Mexico Youth Organized (NMYO) and its parent organization, the Center for Civic Policy<\/a>, made the threat in a news release that came in response to Friday\u2019s strongly worded release<\/a> from Attorney General Gary King<\/a> in which he stood by his office\u2019s prior assertion that NMYO\u2019s activities have crossed the line between policy lobbying and political campaigning. King said the secretary of state needs to force the group to comply with the reporting law.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe attorney general\u2019s statement that he recognizes what can be regulated on the basis of whether it \u2018walks like a duck\u2019 is an indication that he doesn\u2019t understand the law in this area, and he is inviting entirely unnecessary litigation against the State of New Mexico,\u201d John Boyd and Sara Berger, attorneys for the groups, said in the news release.<\/p>\n

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

They were responding to King\u2019s Friday statement that mailers NMYO sent out were not lobbying materials designed to influence the coming special session, as the groups assert, but campaign materials designed to influence the June primary.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere\u2019s an old saying that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it\u2019s probably a duck,\u201d King said in his release. \u201cAnd I think we know a duck when we see one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Boyd and Berger said the U.S. Supreme Court has \u201cmade it abundantly clear that election officials are only permitted to regulate public statements that explicitly address elections. They are not permitted to regulate public statements that relate to officeholders\u2019 conduct, even though those officeholders may be running for re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis is fundamental to the First Amendment\u2019s guarantee of freedom of speech,\u201d the attorneys said.<\/p>\n

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

Eli Il Yong Lee, executive director of the Center for Civic Policy, said in the news release that the group is \u201cdisappointed by Attorney General King\u2019s uncharacteristically glib assessment of a serious matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAt stake is the ability of nonprofits throughout New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> to hold elected officials accountable for their actions and to advocate for issues that are critical to their missions,\u201d he said. \u201cFurther, we are disappointed that the attorney general is issuing a verdict through the media prior to his office completing its research on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The history<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The attorney general\u2019s office sent a letter<\/a> to the secretary of state on May 22 that advised the office to change NMYO\u2019s status to subject it to the Campaign Practices Act. That followed an April 25 letter in which the secretary of state said NMYO was a lobbying organization not subject to the act.<\/p>\n

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

The Center for Civic Policy sent a letter to the secretary of state disputing the AG\u2019s opinion, and the AG asked the secretary of state to hold off on taking any action. The deputy secretary of state told the New Mexico Independent<\/a> that the AG\u2019s office told him \u201cto disregard (the letter) or set it aside. I don\u2019t remember the exact terminology. The message was, \u2018We\u2019ve decided that is not our final say.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The Friday release from the AG\u2019s office stated, \u201cIf the deputy secretary of state thought we had instructed him to simply ignore our letter, then that was a misunderstanding on his part of what was said.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cDespite some reports to the contrary, we fully support our earlier position in a letter that the secretary of state\u2019s office needs to tell (NMYO) to immediately comply with the law,\u201d King said in the release. <\/p>\n

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

The Independent later quoted the deputy secretary of state as standing by his previous quote.<\/p>\n

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

Despite the AG\u2019s advice, the secretary of state\u2019s office hasn\u2019t changed the status of NMYO. Phil Sisneros, spokesman for King\u2019s office, said Friday that the AG is reviewing the Center for Civic Policy\u2019s letter because it is \u201cdoing the due diligence on this,\u201d but the AG is firm in his position. Sisneros said there\u2019s no timeline for the completion of that review.<\/p>\n

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

By way of disclosure, I also write for the New Mexico Independent<\/a>, which is owned by the Center for Independent Media<\/a> in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. When the group was starting up its New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> news site earlier this year, the Center for Civic Policy helped it locate funding sources. The Center for Civic Policy has never tried to use that fact to influence anything I have written.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nonprofit facing the possibility of being forced to comply with the state\u2019s campaign finance reporting law threatened on Saturday to sue if that happens. New Mexico Youth Organized (NMYO) and its parent organization, the Center for Civic Policy, made the threat in a news release that came in response to Friday\u2019s strongly worded release […]<\/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-3552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552","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=3552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}