Lobbyist reform coming to Santa Fe?

Illustration by Keith Lewis

SANTA FE — Former state lawmakers would need to wait a year after their terms end to return to the Roundhouse as lobbyists under legislation that hurdled a Senate committee late last week.

The Senate Rules Committee on a 4-to-1 vote passed Senate Bill 163 on Friday. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Eric Griego, D-Albuquerque, would impose a one-year “cooling off period” for lawmakers who want to become lobbyists.

Griego’s reform measure is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, explained that the bill would work this way: If a senator resigned today, he or she could not lobby at the Roundhouse until a year after his or her current term would normally end, at the end of 2011.

Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, asked during the committee meeting how many ex-legislators are lobbying their former colleagues.

No one knew.

If the proposal is passed by both chambers of the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bill Richardson, the legislation would take effect Dec. 31, 2010.

Griego’s bill was the only ethics reform bill measure to clear the Senate Rules committee on Friday. Waiting in the wings are several pieces of legislation that are likely to face much more scrutiny and to produce a livelier debate as the legislative session moves into its second half.

Those bills would limit campaign contributions to elected officials and political candidates.

New Mexico is one of a handful of states that does not limit campaign contributions.

State lawmakers on the Senate Rules Committee spent most of the committee’s roughly two-hour meeting comparing four bills that would limit campaign contributions.

In the end, the committee chairwoman, Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, said Senate Rules will craft a substitute bill that could incorporate provisions from each of the competing pieces of legislation. Also on the committee’s radar is a bill supported by the governor that would ban campaign contributions from lobbyists and state contractors.

Lopez said it could be two weeks before the committee substitute could come up for discussion. She said that time line would give the proposed legislation enough time to move through the Legislature.

Despite the delay, supporters thought this could be the year that the New Mexico Legislature passes limits on campaign contributions.

“I think we will get a caps bill,” said Steven Robert Allen, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico. “But I don’t think we need a bill with higher limits than the federal limits.”

Currently, federal election law limits what a person can give to a political candidate to $2,400 per primary election and $2,400 per general election.

Lawmakers on the Senate Rules Committee spent most of a two-hour meeting comparing four competing pieces of legislation that would impose varying limits on campaign contributions to elected officials and political candidates.

New Mexico is one of a handful of states that does not limit campaign contributions.

The bills state lawmakers reviewed Friday all require limits to contributions, but they vary in big and little ways. They are sponsored by Sens. Dede Feldman, Bernadette Sanchez, Sue Wilson Beffort and Wirth. For a comparison, here is a rough sketch of what these bills do:

Sen. Feldman’s bill, SB 116, would impose limits to political candidates on a tiered schedule. A person could give $2,300 per primary election and $2,300 per general election to non-statewide candidates such as state legislators. Under the bill, a person could give $5,000 per primary election and $5,000 per general election for statewide candidates such as the governor. The bill also would limit what a person could give to a political committee — $5,000 per primary election and $5,000 per general election.

It also would limit what a political action committee (PAC) could give to political candidates on a tiered schedule. For non-statewide candidates, a political committee could give $5,000 per primary election and $5,000 per general election. A PAC could give $10,000 per primary and $10,000 per general election to a statewide candidate and to another political committee.

Bills by Beffort, SB 262, and Sanchez, SB 346, are very similar. They would impose limits of $1,000 per person for primary election and $1,000 per general election to a non-statewide candidate, such as a state lawmaker; $2,300 per primary election and $2,300 per general election for statewide candidates for offices such as the governor; and $5,000 to a PAC per calendar year.

Both also would limit what political committees could give to non-statewide candidates ($1,000 per primary, $1,000 per general election) as well as for statewide candidates ($2,300 per primary and $2,300 per general election). They also would limit what a political committee could give to another political committee to $5,000 per calendar year.

Wirth’s bill, SB 521, tracks federal contributions limits. An individual could give at $2,300 per primary election and $2,300 per general election. It does not make a distinction between statewide and non-statewide candidates. It also would limit to $5,000 per calendar year what a person could give a political committee and to $10,000 per calendar year what a person could give to a political party.

The same bill would impose limits of how much a political committee could give to candidates: $5,000 per primary election and $5,000 per general election. It also would limit how much a political committee could give to another political committee and a political party — $5,000 per calendar year.

Finally, that bill would limit what a political party could give to non-statewide candidates ($5,000 per primary election and $5,000 per general election), statewide candidates ($10,000 per primary election and $10,000 per general election), and to a political committee ($5,000 per calendar year).