The state’s Campaign Finance Reporting Act is in need of an overhaul. That’s according to state elections officials and state lawmakers who discussed it during a meeting yesterday afternoon.
At a hearing held by the Courts, Corrections, and Justice committee, secretary of state Maggie Toulouse Oliver said that she wants to suggest some changes to the law prior to the beginning of January’s legislative session.
The law is intended to promote transparency in the campaign finance process. It played a role this fall, when one New Mexico political action committee was forced to reveal its donors after a State Ethics Commission ruling required it to do so.
During yesterday legislative meeting, at which Toulouse Oliver was presenting on the administration of last week’s election, state senator Katy Duhigg, of Albuquerque, said loopholes in the law were exposed by a federal ruling.
The state law aimed to ensure that disbursed campaign funds would only go to 501(c)3 organizations, but Duhigg said a federal court removed some of the guardrails.
"This is a really big deal. That was really important because without that limitation in there, I can give it away to whoever I want and call them a charitable organization so I can give my friends a whole bunch of my campaign funds, and that would be legal and appropriate.
"This is something that we really do need to address this coming session, and figure out a way to put appropriate guardrails on the use of campaign funds while still respecting the ruling that we got from the federal court."
Next year’s 60-day state legislative session begins in late January.
