Journal Fails to cover Ethics Commission

New Mexico needs legislative ethics reform, but especially an Ethics Commission. Such a bill is proposed, but Senators like Bernadette Sanchez oppose it.

Below you will find a great oped from the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and Common Cause, published yesterday in the Albuquerque Journal, WHICH SHOULD BE RUNNING STORIES LIKE THIS ON ITS FRONT PAGE.

Ever wonder why we have an unending series of public officials stealing our money? Can you say Manny Aragon? Forty other states have independent ethics commissions which investigate and deter corruption and crime.

Little known fact: New Mexico has just such a commission that investigates, disciplines and, even, fires judges. The Judicial Standards Commission operates independently, competently, professionally and without bias, taking down judges that are drunks, drug abusers, corrupt and/or perverts -- all recent cases.

Ask yourself, why don't legislators want an independent group looking for corruption??

So, you might want to phone your legislator about establishing an Ethics commission and the other reforms listed in the following oped from the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and Common Cause, published yesterday in the Albuquerque Journal, which should be running articles like this on the front page.

Ethics Reform Bogs Down

By Don Chalmers And Jack Taylor
Ethics Reform Advocates
      New Mexicans are asking the Legislature for meaningful ethics reform this year, and we couldn't agree more. Apparently, a number of lawmakers are also in agreement, given that they have introduced more than 45 bills related to campaign contribution limits, establishment of an ethics commission, limitations on state contractors' contributions to public officials, fiscal penalties for public officials who have committed crimes related to their office and imposition of state conduct legislation on local governments.
       However, we are running out of time to get this done. The Senate Rules Committee, which is the first committee of several in the Senate to which the ethics bills go, has spent the last three weeks reviewing the various ethics bills sponsored by senators in an effort to allow each legislator the opportunity to have a hearing on his or her bill.
       To date, several bills have passed out of this committee, one of which has made it out of the Senate and over to the House. That bill would allow the imposition of financial penalties on those public officials who commit a felony related to their office.
       The House has also been working on some ethics reform bills. It sent a whistle blower bill, an open conference committee bill and a bill to allow the Attorney General to prosecute statewide elected officials over to the Senate. It also has a bill to establish an ethics commission in its third committee.
       Yet, we still don't have a single piece of major ethics reform legislation moving through the process fast enough to be considered by both chambers and be sent up to the governor.
       As in years past, the major bills are stalled in committee. We know that legislators have a great deal on their plate, but many of these bills were introduced early in the session. They should be heard in committee and moved forward now; otherwise, we will, once again, fail to enact major, meaningful ethics reform.
       Perhaps it would help if all of us, legislators included, remember that:
       n New Mexico is one of five states in the country with no campaign contribution limits.
       n We're one of 10 states with no independent ethics commission to investigate allegations of misconduct by public officials.
       n We're one of just a handful of states in which the public is not allowed to observe legislative conference committees, the powerful committees that reconcile differences between bills that pass both chambers.
       n New Mexico is one of just six states that until recently didn't broadcast any of its legislative proceedings. (That's changed a bit this session, largely due to a bit of high-profile civil disobedience by Republican representative Janice Arnold-Jones.)
       n In reports published by the UCLA School of Law and the California Voter Foundation that analyzed states' campaign finance disclosure systems, New Mexico has received two consecutive “F” grades.
       We don't want to remain at the bottom of another list—if our state is ever to move up the economic and social ladder, the first step needs to be cleaning up the rules of the game in our state government.
       Legislators need to do the right thing and take action quickly on ethics reform. This is what their constituents want. This is what the New Mexico business community wants. This is what government reform advocates want. We believe this is probably what most legislators themselves want.
       Don Chalmers is board chairman of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. Jack Taylor is chairman of Common Cause of New Mexico.