Hi Folks. This is Matt from Common Cause New Mexico. Like Washington, D.C. and several states around the country, New Mexico has its own public corruption scandal. Former New Mexico State Treasurer Robert Vigil is currently on trial in federal court facing 24 counts of extortion, racketeering and conspiracy. Vigil's predecessor has already admitted to taking bribes from a New Mexico state investment advisor and is one of the prosecution's main witnesses.

Despite this corruption scandal being in the public eye for the past seven months, our state legislature failed to enact many of the bills covering ethics and campaign reform during the 2006 session. In response to this failure, and because of the mounting political pressure, Governor Bill Richardson recently formed a task force to study and recommend ethics and campaign finance reform for the 2007 legislative session. Governor Richardson announced the creation of this task force at a recent Common Cause luncheon.

Now, we all know task forces can be a place where real reform ideas go to die. But, given the fact that Common Cause has a seat on the task force, I am reasonably confident that we can get strong recommendations for reform. But, this will not happen without sustained citizen pressure.

That's why Common Cause New Mexico is using the local blogosphere, public presentations, and an upcoming event and a forthcoming pledge campaign to make sure there's a hard push for reform. I'll blog further in the coming weeks about our campaign. In the mean time, stay tuned to the Common Cause New Mexico website for the latest information about ethics, public campaign financing and Election Day Registration in the Land of Enchantment.