Trial exposes need for tougher laws, activists say

Former state Treasurer Robert Vigil and his lawyers call them “campaign contributions.”

Prosecutors call them “kickbacks.”

Whoever is correct, Vigil’s ongoing federal trial — for 28 counts of extortion, money laundering and conspiracy — shows the need for tougher laws concerning campaign finances and ethics in the state, campaignfinance-reform advocates say.

Matt Brix, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, said in an interview Monday that the treasurer scandal illustrates the need for an independent office in state government to ensure full compliance with ethics laws and rules.

“Unless the states decides to join 39 other states and create an independent ethics commission, we’re not going to have resources to police the laws we already have,” said Brix, whose organization is “committed to honest, open and accountable government ,” according to its Web site.

But stricter laws are needed, Brix said. He pointed out that the National Campaign Disclosure Project last year gave New Mexico a flunking grade in the area of camvpaign-disclosure laws.

Gov. Bill Richardson, whose call for tougher ethics laws were mainly ignored by the state Legislature this year, on Monday announced the 17 members of an ethics task force, which is charged with “studying the issues of government ethics and campaign finance reform and recommending a broad package of reforms” for next year’s Legislature.

The task force is headed by former Gov. Garrey Carruthers and Suellyn Scarnecchia, dean of The University of New Mexico School of Law.

“It is unacceptable that New Mexico does not limit or include any accountability for campaign contributions or gifts to elected officials,” Richardson said during a speech last month to members of Common Cause.

This speech came two days after testimony in the Vigil case implicated Guy Riordan, a personal friend and political contributor of Richardson’s . Former state Treasurer Michael Montoya testified that Riordan gave him cash payments in exchange for state contracts.

Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque , carried many of Richardson’s doomed anti-corruption bills in this year’s session .

Feldman said Monday that one of her bills that did pass would have prevented some of the financial transactions that are being argued in Vigil’s trial. Senate Bill 344, signed into law by Richardson, requires disclosure of campaign contributions by those bidding on state contracts. It also bans campaign contributions and gifts to government officials from prospective contractors during the contracting process.

“Many lobbyists have complained to me that this creates additional paperwork for their clients,” Feldman said. “I think we hit the nail on the head with this bill.”

Among the ethics bills that died in the Senate this year are those that would have prohibited elected officials and their family members from selling goods or services to the state without competitive procurement procedures; and legislation requiring stricter campaign-contribution reporting — including the reporting of money spent by “527” political groups and individuals who are advocating the election or defeat of a candidate.

Feldman backed a bill, not endorsed by Richardson, that would have barred anyone who had contributed to a candidate from doing business with that office for at least two years after an election. This failed in the Legislature also.

Brix, who like Feldman is a member of the governor’s new ethics task force, said Common Cause supports the bills that were part of the anti-corruption package.

He also said the group wants a bill that would require lobbyists to disclose what bills they are interested in influencing each Legislation session. He said there should be a state Web site updated at least weekly during a session showing which lobbyists are working for or against which bills. Both Brix and Feldman also support establishing a system of voluntary public financing of campaigns.

This is the first year of such a system for candidates for the Public Regulations Commission. Feldman said she would introduce legislation to establish a similar system for all state government candidates.