[LWVNM Action] : A fresh look at New Mexico's unfinished ethics agenda
Meredith Machen
meredith.machen at gmail.com
Thu Oct 1 15:01:22 MDT 2026
Good article here. The connection between the need for legislative
compensation and the urgency for higher ethics accountability is often on
my mind.
Meredith Ross Machen
505-577-6337
Meredith.machen at gmail.com
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Marjorie Childress / NM In Depth <nmindepth at 12751787.mailchimpapp.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Subject: A fresh look at New Mexico's unfinished ethics agenda
To: <meredith.machen at gmail.com>
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*This is New Mexico In Depth’s elections 2026 newsletter produced every
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touch:** marjorie at nmindepth.com* <marjorie at nmindepth.com?subject=&body=>
*A fresh look at New Mexico's unfinished ethics agenda*
An idea long confined to the margins of New Mexico's campaign finance
debates just made it onto a prominent advocacy group's statehouse agenda.
A new ethics reform report
<https://us.list-manage.com/PxQwsyqiEvn?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>
from Think New Mexico calls for “true source” disclosure to reveal who is
actually paying for campaign spending. It's the first time I've seen the
idea included as a core plank in a push for legislative ethics reform.
True-source disclosure follows money through intermediary organizations to
its original source. If a nonprofit gives money to a political action
committee that buys campaign ads, disclosure wouldn't stop with the
nonprofit. Major donors behind it would also be disclosed. Think New Mexico
proposes modeling the law on Arizona's Voters' Right to Know Act
<https://us.list-manage.com/Jr_o2dZcgr4?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>,
which was upheld
<https://us.list-manage.com/6XPdy02P_8Z?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>
by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week.
New Mexico In Depth has tracked this problem since 2020, when we began
reporting
<https://us.list-manage.com/1BYU3Jeh5uf?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>
on “gray money” — campaign spending in which some donors are disclosed but
the original source remains obscured. This year, particularly blatant
examples emerged, with PACs reporting nonprofits as major donors while the
people funding them remained hidden. At this point, we might as well drop
the “gray” and call it what it is: dark money.
The report also calls for closing a loophole we reported on
<https://us.list-manage.com/k72zDbu9kwR?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>
in July. Out-of-state political committees registered with the Federal
Election Commission are exempt from swath’s of New Mexico's reporting
requirements. Their spending doesn't appear in the state's online system,
on the state's schedule or with disclosures state law otherwise requires.
But the report isn't just about outside money. It goes much further,
proposing tighter conflict-of-interest rules for legislators and much more
disclosure from lobbyists.
Whether these ideas go anywhere depends on a Legislature with a long record
of letting ethics reform stall, although a recent scandal involving one of
their own might add momentum to this year’s effort.
In August, former House Majority Leader Sheryl Williams Stapleton, a
Democrat, was convicted of federal bribery, fraud and money laundering
charges. Prosecutors said
<https://us.list-manage.com/1ZrqlyjvRnJ?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>
she used her positions at Albuquerque Public Schools and in the Legislature
to steer funding to the school and then to a friend's company, then took
about $1.15 million of it for herself.
Think New Mexico, which has a track record of results, intends to put its
weight behind reforms that haven’t succeeded at the Roundhouse. That could
help keep reform moving as key lawmakers begin to retire.
Its report describes a history of “fits and starts” closely tied to
corruption. It begins with the state Constitution, which includes
provisions such as the Anti-Donation Clause in response to the graft and
influence-peddling of the territorial period. Over the century that
followed, scandals repeatedly spurred interest in reform. The biggest
change in the past 20 years has been the creation of the State Ethics
Commission, which came only after years of failed attempts and multiple
high-profile corruption cases.
“The clear pattern is generally big reforms like the ethics commission come
about in the wake of a big political scandal,” Fred Nathan, executive
director of Think New Mexico, said Wednesday during a briefing on polling
the organization commissioned from BSP Research. “Perhaps this recent
conviction of the former House Majority Leader…might serve as an impetus
for some of these ethics reforms to pass in the 2027 session.”
The flip side is that reform efforts often run out of steam as public
outrage fades — even though New Mexicans have consistently said they want
stronger ethics laws, including many of the changes in Think New Mexico's
report.
During the briefing, I asked what I've wondered for years: Why is there
such a gap between public support for ethics reform and legislative action?
Gabriel Sanchez, director of research at BSP Research, said there isn't one
easy answer. One explanation he offered was the structure of the
Legislature, with its 30- and 60-day sessions.
“When you don't have, like other states, a longer legislative runway, you
tend to get incremental policy,” Sanchez said. “By the time you're getting
into the weeds of a particular issue, the clock runs out and you start all
over again.”
Research suggests that as legislatures become more professional, with paid
lawmakers, longer sessions and more staff, “you tend to have greater policy
reform activity just because there's more time to be able to make that
happen,” Sanchez said.
The Legislature's structure matters to this debate in another way.
For years, its citizen structure has been used to argue against stricter
ethics rules. Lawmakers have to make their living outside the Roundhouse,
making conflicts between their public duties and private jobs difficult to
avoid.
The report points to a striking example from 1992. A state Governmental
Ethics Task Force rejected proposals including stronger recusal
requirements and a cooling-off period before former legislators could
become paid lobbyists. According to the report, the task force concluded
that many ethics rules used elsewhere were “wholly inappropriate in the
part-time [unpaid] citizen context.”
You hear versions of that argument at the Roundhouse today.
But more than three decades later, the context is changing, with
Legislators now having paid staff. And in November, voters will decide
whether to amend the state Constitution to allow legislators to receive
salaries.
The BSP Research poll suggests many voters connect pay and ethics.
Sixty-four percent said they would support paying legislators only if
lawmakers were also required to comply with mandatory ethics reforms.
Nineteen percent supported salaries regardless of ethics reforms, while 17%
opposed salaries either way.
That response crossed party lines: 66% of Democrats, 64% of Republicans and
62% of independents and others chose salaries with ethics reform.
For decades, lawmakers have cited their unpaid status as a reason to resist
stricter ethics rules. If voters approve salaries in November, the question
is whether they'll keep making that argument.
<https://us.list-manage.com/arI4N5PKTSc?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>
Should Think New Mexico’s policy recommendations be adopted, here are the
changes that would happen.
*When lawmakers have a personal stake*
Legislators would have to say so when a bill would directly affect their
own finances. Voters would decide, through a proposed constitutional
amendment, whether salaried lawmakers should have to step aside on those
bills, without needing their colleagues' permission.
Lawmakers would also have to speak up when a family member is lobbying on a
bill they're voting on, and the report suggests they sit out the vote if
that family member is a spouse.
And legislators, statewide elected officials and agency heads would have to
name the specific sources of their income and assets, instead of listing
vague categories like "real estate" or "finance and banking."
*Slowing the revolving door*
Former legislators would have to wait two years before they could become
paid lobbyists. Former executive branch employees, who now must wait a year
before being paid to lobby the agency where they worked, would have to wait
two.
*Shining more light on lobbyists*
Lobbyists would have to report which bills they're working on, whether
they're for or against them, and how much each client pays them.
Lobbyists already report their spending, on meals or entertainment for
example, but they'd now have to say which client paid, which lawmakers
benefited and what bill or issue it was about.
They'd also have to file reports in the middle of the legislative session
and right after it ends, so the public doesn't have to wait until months
later to see most of the spending.
*Following the money behind political ads*
Groups running campaign ads or ads meant to sway officials on issues would
have to reveal their major funders, even when the money passes through
other groups first.
Out-of-state political committees, which can now skip New Mexico's
reporting rules and timelines if they're registered with the Federal
Election Commission, would have to file state reports like everyone else.
And it would become explicitly illegal to misrepresent constituents' views
to officials, such as sending comments under real people's names without
their knowledge.
*I*
<https://us.list-manage.com/ZNNV_xbLa3g?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>*’d
love to hear your thoughts about politics in New Mexico. Or political news
you know. **You can reach me directly: **marjorie at nmindepth.com*
<marjorie at nmindepth.com?subject=&body=>
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*Other reporting from New Mexico In Depth*
<https://us.list-manage.com/mgiPNW5LPyY?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>
<https://us.list-manage.com/LytrIY4QAqt?e=655a07f1e7&c2id=5344e40ae5357afe468e48003396388a>
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