In August came news that Dianna Duran, New Mexico’s secretary of state and in charge of overseeing campaign finance compliance, had taken money from her campaign account, spent it at local casinos and falsified her own reports to hide it. Two months later she pleaded guilty to six criminal charges, including two felony counts of embezzlement. Weeks after her guilty plea, a report comparing campaign finance laws and compliance across all 50 states revealed what many of us in New Mexico already knew: Our state seriously lags when it comes to monitoring and controlling the flow of money into the political system. According to the Center for Public Integrity’s 2015 State Integrity Report, New Mexico ranked 36th,, flunking campaign finance transparency. Those who shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh yes, things are terrible, but what can we do?” might have a look at Massachusetts, the state to score highest in campaign finance transparency in CPI’s report.