The Anomaly: SunCal

The Associated Press’ Barry Massey filed a report  late yesterday afternoon (updated today),  highlighting the spending of New Mexico lobbyists and their employers during the first four months of 2009.  Not surprisingly, spending on meals, beverages, gifts and grassroots lobbying efforts were way down this year. This lower spending trend wasn’t universal.  The one anomaly [...]

Learning to Lobby, Winning a Battle

There’s been much talk about how the New Mexico State Legislature is truly an inaccessible place for many residents who don’t have the time, the money or the practical knowledge of how business is conducted in the Roundhouse. I’ve written about how perplexed and cynical I was after my first up-close look at the session. [...]

Ethics: The Myth of New Mexico’s Exceptionalism

On Saturday, the NM State Senate delivered yet another blow to the cause of ethics reform.  SB163, a bill to impose a one-year cooling off period before ex-legislators can work as lobbyists, went down by a vote of 14-22. One of the major purposes of the cooling-off period is to remove the temptation for lawmakers [...]

Not Getting Any Easier

As if on cue, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will gather this Thursday to mark up what should be an interesting report. Now this isn’t just any report on accounting practices or procurement problems in an obscure agency. Nope. This is a report on Jack Abramoff’s contacts and connections with the White House. [...]

“Bidness” as Usual Express: The Eric Serna–John McCain Connection

From Santa Fe to Austin to Washington – it’s (as Molly Ivins would say) just the way they do “bidness” around here. Let’s start with Eric Serna. Remember him? Once upon a time he was the young up-and-coming politico who, when he ran for Corporation Commission in 1982, populated the highways with all those god [...]

McCain: “Happy Festivus, Insurance Industry!”

Over the past couple of months, a discussion on the core issues facing Americans has pretty much fallen by the wayside during the presidential campaign. Americans expect an adult debate on foreign policy, the economy and health care. Instead, the 24-hour news cycle is obsessed with one candidate’s middle name and who’s most at home [...]

Lobbyists Gone Wild

When New Mexicans think about John McCain, I’m guessing most have a pretty vague, but favorable opinion about him. I certainly did, primarily because of his efforts on campaign finance reform several years back. But now, under the scrutiny of the Presidential race, I’m beginning to see McCain in a different light because of the [...]

The Ethics Fight: Is Monahan just a shill for little birdies & alligators

Here’s one you don’t see every day. The DFNM blog takes on Joe Monahan for shilling for legislators who are trying to kill ethics reform. DFNM nails this one dead-on the money. M-Pyre is on it too. Bravo! So it seems that earlier today Monahan scolded Common Cause for pushing too hard on ethics reform [...]

Contra Monahan

Political blogger Joe Monahan may be the go-to darling of the local MSM, but a great post at Democracy for New Mexico puts these matters into proper perspective. A Letter From The People: Touring the Realm of the Dispossessed