What’s the old line? Be careful what you ask for.

That thought must have crossed Gov. Bill Richardson’s mind Thursday. His staff called a news conference at the Capitol to showcase the governor signing two ethics reform bills. One will put New Mexico in the mainstream of states by, for the first time, limiting campaign contributions to political candidates. Another bill will increase the number of campaign finance reports candidates must file.

It’s big news, no doubt. But the news conference turned into a lobbying session for a totally separate bill. Yep. You guessed it. Open conference committees.

A reporter began by asking if he was going to sign it. Richardson repeated his concern that the open conference committees legislation would let either chamber — the House or Senate — to ignore the law if it chose to. The bill passed the House on a 66-0 vote and the Senate by a 33-8 vote, by the way.

And then he repeated in general terms what he told me Wednesday.

“There wasn’t much public support in terms of e-mails. I meet with numerous constituents,” Richardson said. “Once, somebody came to me in Las Cruces and was for open conference committees.”

Then he turned to Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, who was sitting next to Richardson because of her role as a perennial advocate for campaign contribution limits. And he uttered the magic words.

“I would invite Dede or any of you to express your views” on open conference committees, the governor said.

What happened next is rare at gubernatorial press conferences. A spontaneous lobbying campaign by lawmakers and others.

Terri Cole, of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, jumped in to lobby first.

“We have urged you to sign it and we’re going to continue putting as much pressure on you as we can for you to sign it,” Cole said.

“Get me some e-mails,” Richardson quipped, meaning e-mails from supporters.

“If I knew that’s what I needed to do,” Cole shot back. “Well,” she said, looking at the clock hanging in the governor’s cabinet room. “Let’s see by 2 p.m.” It was about 11:30 a.m.

“I think the bill that’s in front of you, while it’s not perfect, I believe it’s the only bill we could get in front of you,” Cole said. “It’s either that or nothing. And we just don’t want nothing as we move forward. We’ll continue to urge you and be a pain in your neck.”

“You think this is the best we can do?” the governor retorted.

“Well, governor, I think so,” Feldman said. “We have tried it now for six years.”

Next came the sponsor of the campaign contributions bill, Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe.

“It seems to me that with a bill like this, we get something in place and then if we need to go back, if it is being abused, we go back and fix the problem with what’s there,” Wirth said. “Because if we don’t do it, we start from scratch. There’s a momentum and we had a momentum during this session that led to the two bills we are signing today.”

Steven Robert Allen of Common Cause came last. He spoke to the governor’s concern about the Legislature’s ability to overturn the opening of conference committees.

“This is the bill that is passable,” Allen said. “And I think it is a major step forward. It’s certainly better than nothing, so Common Cause would urge the governor to sign it as well.”

The governor thanked everyone for speaking. He said he hadn’t received the open conference committees bill yet.

“Well, Step 1, I need to get it up here,” the governor said. “I physically couldn’t sign a bill that we don’t have.”