Ethics Reform

It is long past time for New Mexico to deal with “pay-to-play.” 

To do so will take three separate actions.  If we don’t enact something like these, we will continue to operate under the shadow of cynicism and mistrust which has, for generations, characterized New Mexicans’ view of their elected officials.

1.      State Governmental Ethics Commission

This would receive complaints of misconduct, investigate them and be empowered to issue penalties when the investigations reveal abuse of governmental authority. 

The debate over establishing this commission in recent legislative sessions has become bogged down in interminable arguments over who will name the commissioners; over how many there should be and over how to achieve a balance of interests (political, geographic and occupational) in its make-up.  What has tended to emerge for consideration is a hopeless composite; the classic “horse designed by a committee”.

Scrap all that nonsense.  It should be very simple: five to seven members; all named by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate, but appointed to staggered terms so that over time the make-up will reflect appointments by several Chief Executives, not just one. 

This Commission should be made up of men and women who are immediately accepted as having integrity, objectivity and experience and who are as much as possible, “above politics”.  Their number could come from among our retired Supreme Court Justices and District Court Judges; from retired academics such as University Presidents or Law and Medical School Deans; from retired ecclesiastical officials or from retired business executives or consultants.  The operative word in all these categories is “retired”.  There should be no need to ever have members of this commission recuse themselves for potential conflicts of interest or to have their decisions questioned because of such possible conflicts.

2.      Whistle Blower Protection Law.

Most of the time corruption in official conduct will be known to state or local employees who have been involved unwittingly while carrying out the duties of their positions.  It is imperative that such employees be able to come forward and report allegations of misconduct to the Governmental Ethics Commission without fear of retaliation or reprisal.  Without such a law protecting them they will be far more reluctant to step forward and say what they have observed going on…and the entire process will have simply been swept under the rug.

3.      A Ground Rule for Governmental Conduct.

This need not be a bulky document or a complicated code requiring interpretation and training to understand.  It should simply be a bright line distinction between campaign contributors and state contractors. 

Essentially, it should be illegal to award governmental contracts to anyone, individual or corporation, who has contributed to a state candidate in the past two years; and it should be illegal to accept a campaign contribution from anyone who has been awarded a governmental contract during the previous two years.

Anything less than this complete prohibition against mixing donors and contractors falls short of passing the smell test and will lead simply to manipulation, trickery and excuses. 

We simply must restore the citizens’ faith in their governmental officials’ integrity.  And, there is a side benefit: producing contracts with the best-qualified applicants, instead of the best-connected applicants.

Ultimately, we also might reduce the amount of money candidates can raise from special interests, requiring them to talk to ordinary voters instead.

When elected Lt. Governor I will actively pursue the elimination of our culture of “pay to play” politics.