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Two state senators are asking the state Attorney General's Office to investigate recent automated telephone calls concerning Albuquerque's red-light cameras.

Sen. Michael Sanchez, a Belen Democrat and the majority leader, and Sen. Stuart Ingle, a Portales Republican and the minority leader, asked Attorney General Gary King in a letter dated March 12 to "determine if there were any violations of the Campaign Reporting Act or the Lobbyist Regulation Act."

The request stems from the recent hot debate over Albuquerque's red-light cameras, which automatically issue $100 tickets to speeders and red-light runners.

At least three separate rounds of automatic calling happened last week. One featured City Councilor Craig Loy, urging support for the cameras. Joan Griffin, who worked on Mayor Martin Chavez's campaign, organized the calls, and said today that she paid a company in Florida $41 for the service.

A second round featured an anonymous female voice urging citizens to call Councilor Brad Winter on his cell phone. Winter, who has raised concerns about the cameras, organized a forum on the subject last week that turned into something of a group venting session about the cameras. The call did not say who paid for it.

Winter said last week that he received about 45 calls on the subject. Today, he said only a few more had trickled into his office.

A third anonymous campaign targeted Sen. William Payne, who sponsored a bill calling for special warning lights installed at intersections with cameras. Amended to provide for rumble strips instead, the bill is headed to the governor for consideration.

Payne said that "when there's an organized, funded effort that's anonymously done, I think that probably crosses the line for lobbying or trying to influence legislation."

State regulations don't appear to differentiate between robotic calls and human calls, said James Flores, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office. Either way, if more than 500 calls are made by a political campaign, a political action committee, or some other group required to regularly report its activities to the state, then the law mandates reporting.