Tightening the Noose on Nonprofits: The Hidden Hand of Leadership

Representative Ken Martinez (D-Grants) was oddly absent in House Voters and Elections Committee Tuesday morning when it gave a “Do Pass” nod to a committee substitute for HB808, one of the bills designed to impose new burdens on local non-profit organizations that engage in public education work on legislative issues.

Although formally sponsored by Rep. Paul Bandy (R-Aztec), that seems to be a front, according to the testimony of Bandy’s expert witness, Phil Baca of the Attorney General’s office.  “I drafted this bill for Rep. Martinez,” Baca told the committee.

Martinez, along with Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, has been leading the effort to rein in the free speech rights of non-profits in New Mexico.  Martinez and Sanchez are co-sponsors of another bill, HB891, the aptly tagged “politician protection act.”

But the new version of HB808 appears to be the real focus of the action now.  The bill does an end run around the election code by instead amending the state tax code, thereby going directly after the tax exempt status of any non-profit organization that merely mentions the name of a “clearly identifiable candidate” (i.e. any member of the legislator or a statewide elected official) during a window starting 90 days prior to an election.

That effectively means that for three-fourths (eight months) of an election year, nonprofits would be guilty of a violation by uttering an elected official’s name for any reason in a printed or electronic communication – whether to praise, criticize, thank or even discuss an issue.

So if the bill passes, nonprofit advocacy group that try to generate phone calls to legislators would be in trouble.  The provisions of the bill don’t apply to corporations, like SunCal, however.

By ducking the vote, Martinez appears to be borrowing a page from Senator Sanchez’s book.  Sanchez is renowned for conveniently absenting himself from Senate Rules Committee at key moments of decision on ethics legislation.

The Sanchez-Martinez’s bill, HB891, is scheduled to be heard this afternoon in the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. Let’s see if Ken shows up.

It’s all in a day’s work for the hidden hand of leadership.

For more on this story:

NM Independent

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 to push legislation made to order for future lobbying clients — in return for lucrative lobbying gigs immediately after they retire. Former Louisiana Congressman Billy Tauzin was an particularly egregious example of this at the federal level.  Note that under state law (the Governmental Conduct Act)  such a cooling-off period is applied to members of New Mexico’s executive branch – but the legislature thus far has exempted itself from this provision. SB163 would correct this omission.

The key moment of the lengthy debate over SB163 was a highly emotional speech against the bill by Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez.

Over the years, the Leader has honed many political skills.  And one that he has perfected to a high art – the taking of umbrage — was unleashed to full effect when he brandished the microphone for his assault on SB163.

Department of Distress: SOS on-line woes continue

What’s going on at the Secretary of State’s office?

No, I’m not referring to this.

Infuriating as that is, it’s old news.

No, I’m talking about backlogs in posting public records online and barriers to access for people who are searching for those records.

Legislators, election observers and advocates for good government have been complaining about the efficiency of the SOS electronic filing system since it was instituted.

And I’m here to tell you:  It hasn’t gotten any better during the current legislative session.

I know this because of my personal experience with the office and because of the constant complaints I hear from reporters who frequent the SOS office and are grimly familiar with the roadblocks it throws up for anyone seeking public records.

That really bothers me, because if skilled, paid searchers have problems getting the documents they came for, what chance does the average New Mexican have?

My Story

I made a special trip to the Secretary of State’s office in Santa Fe on Feb. 12.

Rep. Ken Martinez, Senator Michael Sanchez and the Politician Protection Act of 2009

In years past, the legislature has deployed a defensive strategy on ethics reform – just kill all the bills they don’t want.

That strategy changed this year, with the filing (on the last day to introduce new legislation) of HB891, sponsored by House Majority Leader Ken Martinez and Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez. While a committee substitute is likely, you can see their original bill here.

Ethics bills have been killed over the past several years with Sanchez and Martinez overseeing their demise. They fear things like contribution limits, public financing, an independent ethics commission and open conference committees. They believe these reforms will make it harder for their roundhouse brethren to win re-election.

But playing defense is not enough anymore. Now Martinez and Sanchez – both smart attorneys – are going on the offensive. They want to actually suppress dissent from pesky nonprofits that dare to call attention to the actions of the legislative colleagues they feel they must protect.

This bill from Rep. Martinez and Senator Sanchez should be named the “Politician Protection Act of 2009.”

At first glance, their bill seems reasonable. You can bet that Martinez and Sanchez will present it as such. All it does is require nonprofit organizations that engage in “electioneering communications” to report their organizational donors to the Attorney General.

Seems sensible, right?

Just wait til you see what they really want to do.

Ethics Update: “Constipation is painless compared to this”

With most of the major ethics reform proposals still bottled up in the Senate Rules Committee, Senator Dede Feldman offered this diagnosis of the situation in the Santa Fe New Mexican. It’s the Roundhouse Quote of the Year:

“Constipation is painless compared to this,” said Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, who is sponsoring several measures this session, including ones to limit campaign contributions, to require disclosure of contributions from contractors and to create an ethics commission.

For more on the legislative session at the halfway point, see FBIHOP.

And for more analysis of the politics of the NM State Senate, see Ethics Reform for Dummies

NM Senate this week: The Reckless and The Feckless

First, the reckless: On Thursday, the NM State Senate, counting on a new housing bubble, passed the Linda Lopez (D-Albuq.) sponsored SunCal TIDD bill.  Now if the measure gets through the House, hundreds of millions of future taxpayer dollars will go to subsidize sprawl on Albuquerque’s Westside and benefit a California land developer.  Like every other state in the nation, New Mexico is facing  massive budget deficits as far as the eye can see, which will probably necessitate future tax increases.  (see NM Independent and Cocoposts)

And then there’s the feckless: Also on Thursday, ten Democrats and joined with all fifteen of the Senate’s Republicans to defeat the Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibilities Act by a 17-25 margin.

Just before the voting closed, Senator Carlos Cisneros (D-Questa) suddenly switched his vote from “yes” to “no”.

Meanwhile, it’s déjà vu all over again in the Senate Rules Committee, which is waging a relentless sitzkrieg on the ethics reform front.  Read about  Wednesday’s in-action and Friday’s. Of course, as was previously reported, the committee took the first two weeks of the session off.  To hear a lecture (NM Senate 101) on why the system just has to work in this cockamamie way, listen to KUNM’s interview with Rules Committee Chair Linda Lopez. (see Another Slow Day for Ethics Bills at State Legislature)

New Mexico is one of only five states in the nation with no caps on campaign contributions whatsoever (Illinois just joined the ranks).  Such a measure would severely limit the huge sums of political money that special interests like SunCal could throw at our state’s politicians.  Apparently there’s no great desire on the part of the NM State Senate leadership to fast track this one.

Ethics Reform for Dummies: The Journal doesn’t get it, but Sherry Robinson does

The legislative session passed the mid-point of the sixty-day session last week, and the major ethics reform bills are still in the Senate Rules Committee.

Bills still waiting for their day are ones to establish an independent ethics commission, Clean Elections public financing, and contributions limits (N.M. is one of only five states with no limits whatsoever).

Bear in mind that this is the calendar dictated by Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez. Every year, the major ethics reform bills always seem to get to the Senate floor just hours before the end of the session. And that’s where they die outright or get tagged with last minute amendments that send them back to the house as the clock runs out.

In 2007, it was Senator Sanchez who slipped through a bill (later vetoed by the Governor) that would have overturned the state disclosure law that requires candidates and officeholders to file reports electronically to the secretary of state’s website where they can be accessed by the public.

Sanchez offered this excuse to reporter Steve Terrell of the SF New Mexican: “This isn’t trying to hide campaign-finance reports. It’s for people like me who aren’t very good at computers or access to the Internet.” Sanchez also strongly opposes attempts to open legislative conference committees to the public.

But this year, with the public clamor for ethics reform growing and the new media subjecting his actions to greater scrutiny, Sanchez seems to have altered his obstructionist tactics.

Transparency Watch: N.M. State Senate proves irony is not dead

By Eli Il Yong Lee – Feb 1st, 2009 at 11:35 am MST
Now let me see if I’ve got this straight. The New Mexico State Senate is NOT currently webcasting its floor sessions because the Senate leadership overruled a vote of the full membership authorizing that this be done.

Say again?

That’s right. Last year (Feb. 12, 2008), by a sizable bipartisan majority (27 For and only 13 Against), the Senate passed the webcast authorization along with a $75,000 appropriation. That was Senate Memorial 45 sponsored by Senator Mark Boitano (R-Albuquerque).

By December 2008, after an expenditure of just $30,000, everything was in place and ready to go for the 2009 session. But then something totally unexpected happened.

Pay to Play and Ethics Reform

Is New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson just a high-profile scapegoat for the glaring need for ethics reform in New Mexico?

Take a look at this piece by Marjorie Childress at the New Mexico Independent, in which several well-respected political observers assert that “play for play” politics are rampant, especially in New Mexico, one of five states with no contribution limits. (Yup, Illinois is one of them.)

“There’s a lot of pressure that stems from the design of our government itself for people to give,” says UNM political scientist Lonna Atkeson. “Even if the politician doesn’t demand it, maybe people think it’s expected that they’ll contribute. What they receive may not be what they want. So are they actually buying access or something else? It can create the appearance of corruption even when it doesn’t exist.”

Adds New Mexico Common Cause executive director Steve Allen:

“The way it works is very subtle and, frankly, not illegal.”

The best way for New Mexicans to keep this from happening again is to make pay for play explicitly against the law, says Allen.

Good bye to all that

The new issue of Harper’s (January 2009) has an special three-page edition of the Harper Index – this one devoted entirely to “A retrospective of the Bush era”.

As we say good bye to the old year and to the reign of W, here are just a few of the choicer items. Read ’em and weep. Happy New Year!