ethics reform

After two days of turmoil, over four hours of heated debate and lots of procedural wrangling, the House on Tuesday passed a major piece of ethic legislation. HB 118 would ban campaign contributions from lobbyists and big state contractors from giving money to state-wide candidates and political parties. The bill now has less than 48 hours to try and get through the Senate.

Over three weeks ago Governor Bill Richardson handed a full plate of initiatives to the Roundhouse. So with just about one week left, how much are lawmakers listening?

For the third time in about a week, supporters of House Bill 118 tried to move their bill through the House Voters and and Elections Committee. The committee had asked the sponsor of HB 118Rep. Jose Campos, D-Santa Rosa, to combine his bill with a similar one sponsored by Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque. The [...]

On Tuesday the House Voters and Elections Committee tabled a bill designed to combat pay-to-play, asking supporters to work with Rep. Gail Chasey, D-Albuquerque, the sponsor of a similar bill.
House Bill 118 is sponsored by Rep. Jose Campos, D-Santa Rosa, and is supported by Think New Mexico. The bill would stop government contractors, lobbyists and special interests from making [...]

House Bill 118, a measure that would prevent registered lobbyists, state contractors and agencies seeking subsidies from making contributions to state candidates, was tabled in committee Thursday, but supporters say it’s a temporary setback. The bill would also make nonprofits that engage in partisan activities disclose their donors.

On Thursday, Gov. Bill Richardson gave the nod to a bill that sponsor Sen. Tim Keller said would be “the most sweeping investment fund reform in state history.” The bill incorporates more than 20 recommendations made by an independent study of state practices, including those to address state investment office accountability, board member expertise, alternative [...]

The first day of the 2010 session ended as it began: with no clear plan to solve New Mexico’s worst budget troubles in decades. If past experience is any guide, the budget negotiations will come fits and starts over the next four weeks, with bouts of frustration interspersed with glimmers of hope.

At a time when lawmakers are checking every crack of state government for a few dollars, the state auditor says there is a lot of money not being watched closely enough.
“There’s a billion dollars out there last year that went un-audited–and that is just unacceptable,”  says State Auditor Hector Balderas.

Election victories by progressives helped spark ethics reform in Albuquerque and state government. Now some say it’s time for similar reforms in Las Cruces

For whatever it’s worth, Gov. Bill Richardson announced today the ethics reforms he plans to push in the 2010 session.
Why so skeptical? Richardson did the same thing a year ago, unveiling his ethics agenda for the 2009 session. After that, however, he did little to push that agenda. A number of lawmakers told me during [...]

Common Cause, a government watchdog group, is hosting a bipartisan panel of state legislators for a discussion of ethics reform this weekend. Panel members include state Sens. Sander Rue and Peter Wirth, and state Reps. Kathy McCoy and Eleanor Chavez.

Attorney General Gary King plans to push a number of ethics-reform proposals during the 30-day session of the state Legislature that begins in January. At the top of his list is the creation of an independent ethics commission.

At a forum in Santa Fe on Wednesday night, several candidates for Lt. Governor criticized the chair of the Senate Rules Committee for failing to pass a bill that would have established an independent ethics committee, reports Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican.
“Lopez said ‘You have to be careful,’ because such a group [...]

Despite Gov. Bill Richardson’s claims of vindication, over the weekend several state newspapers ran editorials about the two-term Democratic governor and the end of a federal probe into whether there was pay-to-play involved in deals at the New Mexico Finance Authority.
“No indictments, but heavy stench in state deals,” was the headline of an editorial written by [...]

By any measure, the 60-day session of the New Mexico Legislature that just ended was the most successful in recent memory for ethics-reform advocates who have been pushing for years to fundamentally change the way state government does business.