Ethics Commission Heads to the House Floor!

Ethics Commission Heads to the House Floor!

Common Cause New Mexico is thrilled to announce that the amendment to create an ethics commission is moving forward.

Today the House Judiciary committee unanimously passed HJR5 to establish an independent ethics commission in New Mexico.

Once again we are so appreciative of our amazing sponsor, Rep. Jim Dines (R-Abq), who answered questions from committee members about transparency, false accusations, judicial process, public trust and more. He will make some changes to introduce as a floor amendment to address some of the above concerns from Reps. Brown, Gentry, Martinez, Egolf and McMillan.

You can read about it in the Albuquerque Journal and don’t forget to look tomorrow for many more stories about our trip to the House floor!

Please contact your State legislators and ask them to support this important piece of good government reform in New Mexico.

Business Interests and Ethics

Did you see the report on Crony Capitalism in the State of New Mexico? Turns out business agrees with us – an ethics commission and transparency in political spending is good for New Mexico and New Mexico business!

The Santa Fe New Mexican covered it last week and here is an excerpt (emphasis added):

To curb cronyism in New Mexico, the report suggests three changes that are already under consideration — a statewide ethics commission; greater transparency in campaign financing and lobbying; and a more detailed review of tax breaks given to businesses. Rocca said the measures are fairly simple to enact and not as controversial as bigger changes that might meet more resistance, such as term limits for elected officials.”

Redistricting is Back Up!

Tomorrow morning at 8:30 AM in House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs, HJR1, sponsored by Rep. Carl Trujillo and Sen. Bill O’Neill to create an independent commission to conduct redistricting will be heard in House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs.

In our first hearing last Friday, the committee had some great suggestions to tighten up the language, so we sat down with the sponsor and Legislative Council Services to draft a committee substitute. That sub is ready, and we are back on the agenda tomorrow morning to see how they like it!