I got this email from Matt Brix of Common Cause New Mexico. As Matt commented here earlier today, "a serious examination of how we finance campaigns is long overdue."
Well, this is where it all starts. Don't miss this opportunity to send the message to New Mexico's elected officials, its time for reform, its time to clean up New Mexico politics.
____________________________________________________________
We all know about the ethics and campaign finance scandals, both here in New Mexico and at the federal level. It seems that every day we hear more about official corruption, kick back schemes, or unsavory connections between public officials and wealthy special interests. Common Cause members throughout New Mexico know that we need to enact sweeping ethics and campaign finance reform in order to hold power accountable.
That's why we must pack the upcoming ethics task force meeting with Common Cause New Mexico members and friends on Tuesday, May 30, 9:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M., at the University of New Mexico School of Law!
Earlier this month, Governor Bill Richardson put together a task force on ethics reform. The aim of the task force is to make recommendations for ethics and campaign finance reform legislation for the 2007 legislative session. I am happy to represent Common Cause on the task force.
But, we cannot rely on my task force membership alone to bring about real reform. We must have a strong showing of Common Cause members at task force meetings. So, please join me next Tuesday.
Date: Tuesday, May 30
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: University of New Mexico School of Law. Please see this link to locate the UNM School of Law on the upper portion of the map. The law school will be number 218 on the map.
We'll be fighting to:
1. Ban gifts to public officials from persons having a financial interest in their official actions.
2. Create an independent ethics oversight commission.
3. Establish stronger lobbyist disclosure requirements (like requiring lobbyists to disclose, in real time, what bills they are interested in influencing on a weekly basis during the legislative session).
4. Require that campaign reports contain more information (like aggregate donor totals, and employers/occupations for all donors), and that they be filed more frequently.
5. Limit cash contributions, and limit individual contributions.
6. Require disclosure of all independent campaign expenditures, including those originating outside of New Mexico.
7. Establish public financing of all statewide and legislative campaigns, just like we did in Albuquerque .
Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you at the ethics task force meeting on May 30!
Sincerely,
Matt Brix
Executive Director, Common Cause New Mexico
http://www.commoncause.org/NewMexico
P.S. See my recent post on the Common Blog, and tell the Common Cause community what you think.
Technorati Tags: 2006, New Mexico, Politics, reform
Comments