Hi Folks.  This is Matt from Common Cause New Mexico .  As is the case in Washington, the scandal drum beats on here in New Mexico.  Recently, former New Mexico State Treasurer Robert Vigil was convicted of attempted extortion after a highly publicized federal trial.  The trial and conviction exposed New Mexico's weak ethics and campaign finance laws.  

For the past several months, a task force assembled by Governor Bill Richardson has been developing recommendations for improving the state's ethics and campaign finance laws.  Last week, the task force released its findings and recommendations to Governor Richardson.  The recommendations include limits on gifts and campaign contributions, and an expansion of New Mexico's public financing laws.  

More about the specific recommendations after the jump.      

Hey folks.  This is Matt from Common Cause New Mexico.  You've heard about the national voters first pledge campaign that Common Cause is engaged in with its allies at the federal level.  Common Cause chapters throughout the country are helping out with the federal campaign.  But, we're also engaged in similar campaigns around our own state races.

Here in New Mexico, Common Cause kicked off its voters first pledge campaign last week by mailing out pledge forms and a cover letter to all candidates for statewide office.        

Hey everyone.  This is Matt from Common Cause New Mexico.  This week, secretaries of state and election officials from all over the country converged on Santa Fe for the annual meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State.  The three-day meeting was attended by Common Cause Vice President for Election Reform, Barbara Burt, as well as Common Cause New Mexico Board Chair Jack Taylor.  Jack also serves on the Common Cause National Governing Board.

Taking a break from the panel discussions, meetings and talking with various elections officials, Barb held a press conference on Wednesday with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.  You can read about the press conference here and here.

Barb had this to say about the press conference:

Hey Folks, This is Matt from New Mexico.  Last night, Common Cause held an event in Albuquerque, marking the kick-off of our New Mexico Voters First pledge campaign.  Our state campaign in New Mexico will coordinate closely with Common Cause's clean elections efforts at the Congressional level.

About 100 people packed the home of Common Cause New Mexico board member Eric Griego and Michelle Rizek for good food, beverages and plenty of talk about the upcoming pledge campaign.  During our campaign between now and Election Day 2006, we will ask candidates in New Mexico to pledge support for legislation that will:

Hi Everyone, this is Matt from Common Cause New Mexico.  We are gearing up for our ethics pledge campaign kick-off event this Wednesday evening (June 21).  The event will feature an impressive host committee, and we look forward to having about 100 Common Cause members and activists in attendance.  If you're in New Mexico and you've yet to sign-up for the event, please go here to reserve your spot.

The purpose of the ethics pledge campaign is to get New Mexico's elected officials, especially those running for election or reelection in 2006, to pledge support and vote for a specific set of ethics and campaign finance reforms during the 2007 legislative session.  I blogged last week about the specific reforms we have in mind for New Mexico.  We'll be taking this pledge campaign to elected officials.  But perhaps as importantly, we'll take the pledge campaign to our members and friends through house parties, CauseNet emails and the media.  Stay tuned to the Common Blog for pictures and a wrap-up of the event on Thursday.
   

Hi Folks,  This is Matt from Common Cause New Mexico.  Ethics and campaign reform have been hot topics here in the Land of Enchantment.  Kirstin blogged last week about our effort to overhaul several of Albuquerque's ethics laws.  Despite being one vote shy of the supermajority needed to amend the city charter, we fully intend to bring the bill back in the near future.  When we do pass ethics reform in Albuquerque, we'll give more clarity to campaign reporting requirements, better oversight tools to an important oversight commission, tighten up conflict of interest proivisions and stop future play-to-play scandals before they get started.  Plus, we'll make Albuquerque's new clean elections system even stronger.

Speaking of play-to-play, there are still several indictments that have to be resolved here in what's been an ongoing scandal out of the state treasurer's office over the past several months.  The scandal is not going away, and the people of New Mexico are fed up with the constant news of public corruption.  

Hi Folks, this is Matt from Common Cause New Mexico.  I blogged last week about a big public corruption scandal here in New Mexico, as well as Common Cause's representation on Governor Bill Richardson's ethics reform task force.

Yesterday, the judge in the public corruption scandal of former New Mexico State Treasurer Robert Vigil declared a mistrial.  The prosecution is almost certain to retry the case in the coming months and the case will surely become a hot point for one Congressional race, as well as state and local races in New Mexico.

Despite heavy focus on the case, Common Cause New Mexico's position has remained the consistent; until there is a genuine effort to overhaul ethics and campaign finance laws in New Mexico, the public's confidence in the system and elected officials will remain low.

Are you a Common Cause member living in New Mexico?  Have you been following the public corruption trial?  Or, are you interested in the ethics reform task force?  Tell us what you think in the comments section.

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.