Site Map | Archives

Home › News › Local

Ethics reform stalls in Senate

Bills' slow passage concerns advocates

By Kate Nash
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

related stories RELATED STORIES
related linksMore Local
related linksMOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

related linksTRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.
STORY TOOLS

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

SANTA FE — Matt Brix gets up at 5:30 or 6 a.m. to boot up his laptop and check the status of his ethics reform bills in the Legislature. He then heads for the Capitol.

Bob Johnson gets to the Roundhouse early, too, to check in with key sponsors of good-government legislation and to plan his day.

Once they get here, the two lobbyists have to wait.

And while Brix, the executive director of Common Cause, and Johnson, director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, are waiting for their bills' next committee hearing, they also are waiting for something larger: reform.

So far, they've gone home at night mostly empty-handed.

That was certainly the case Tuesday after the Senate killed one of the key bills Johnson has been tracking, which would open conference committees to the public.

The committees are held to hammer out a compromise when the House and Senate pass different versions of the same bill or budget.

While the House has done well by Brix's ethics bills, the Senate has done little. A bill has to clear both chambers before being sent to the governor.

Brix is following seven bills related to ethics reform this year. He applauded the House, which has passed five. The Senate, however, hasn't passed any.

"We haven't seen the same traction and support in the Senate," he said. "We've seen key leaders come out and speak against this and that's discouraging."

Less than three weeks remain in this 60-day session.

With a series of recent local and national scandals, Brix said there's a push for reform, including several stemming from an ethics task force appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson. A coalition of groups is supporting the changes, he said.

"I just think there's been an incredible momentum for it and I think it would be very disappointing to see it stalled out," Brix said.

Reform hasn't stalled yet, he said, "but I think we're approaching that direction."

Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez said the Senate is just moving warily on the measures.

"I don't know if there's opposition. I think we want to look at them very carefully, to make sure it's the right thing to do," he said last week.

"Just because the governor says it's the right thing to do or somebody else says it's the right thing to do doesn't necessarily make it so," he said.

Sanchez, a Belen Democrat, said last week he's opposed to one of the ethics bills, a measure that would pay lawmakers a salary.

Proponents of the measure say it would discourage lawmakers from acceptable unethical contributions. Opponents point out that New Mexico has a "citizen Legislature" that isn't paid, and they want to keep it that way.

Sen. Kent Cravens, an Albuquerque Republican, said a portion of the reform package still has a chance this 60-day session, which ends March 17.

"I think there are pieces of ethics legislation that are still floating around out there. I don't think ethics reform is necessarily dead."

Cravens and others have said that many of the reforms are aimed at the Legislature when problems have come up in other branches of government. New Mexico last year watched a former state treasurer go on trial for corruption charges, the Superintendent of Insurance coming under fire for questionable activity in his division and judges who have been reprimanded for improper conduct.

"We're not even dealing with other elected offices. This whole ethics discussion is aimed at the Legislature," he said.

Brix said it's up to the Legislature to make changes for everyone else, and that not all the bills would apply to lawmakers.

A measure expanding public financing of campaigns in the state, for example, wouldn't apply to lawmakers.

Sen. Dede Feldman, an Albuquerque Democrat, said she's hopeful her colleagues will pass key measures, including one she's carrying that requires better campaign disclosure.

"There's still hope," she said.

The House has given the nod to limits on campaign contributions and gifts, and to a measure allowing statewide officials to use public campaign financing, among other bills.

Back in the Senate on Tuesday, lawmakers on a 20-21 vote axed a measure by Sen. Joe Carraro, an Albuquerque Republican, to open conference committees, which are some of the last closed meetings in the Legislature. Lawmakers for years have fought the proposal and earlier this session killed a similar bill by one vote.

This time, senators approved the measure by one vote. But minutes later they called for reconsideration. On a second vote, which drew some senators who had missed the first vote, they killed the bill.

Johnson wasn't pleased. "They sent out for people who were against it. If they weren't in the chamber (for the first vote), that's their problem," he said.

Carraro worked to convince his colleagues to approve the bill.

"How could you ever argue that open government can be bad?" he said. "The stuff that happens in conference committees would curl your hair. It's just amazing what we're able to do."

Opponents of the measure including Sen. Tim Jennings, a Democrat from Roswell, said it wouldn't be fair to open the Legislature's conference committees when the executive branch can meet in secret.

"I think this allows one branch of government inside another branch of government," he said.