Politics
Lobbyists report spending nearly $300,000 during session
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Lobbyists wined and dined lawmakers to the tune of nearly $300,000 during the 60-day session, while efforts to increase regulation of them largely failed.
New Mexico In Depth (https://nmindepth.com/series/transparency-project/page/3/)
NMID creates publically searchable databases that allow for greater scrutiny of the influence of private money on governance, and examines a range of related issues including campaign finance, lobbying, government transparency and accountability.
Lobbyists wined and dined lawmakers to the tune of nearly $300,000 during the 60-day session, while efforts to increase regulation of them largely failed.
While much of the $231,000 went toward wining and dining legislators, Common Cause New Mexico spent $79,000 on advertisements and a phone campaign.
Individual lobbyists spent more than $1.6 million in the past four years, but it’s often difficult to tell who they wined and dined. Some lawmakers are looking for reform.
People, Power and Democracy
This story is part of a reporting partnership between New Mexico In Depth, KUNM and NMPBS that attempts to pull back the curtain on how the New Mexico Legislature works and, in some cases, doesn’t. New Mexico In Depth downloaded web pages from the New Mexico Secretary of State on lobbyists, employers and details on specific expenses from both groups. Data from amended reports was ignored, and only the most recent filings were used. Filings of 48-hour reports of spending of $500 or more were compared with filings made on standard filing dates of Jan. 15 and May 15, and duplicates were removed.
Lobbyists reported spending $443,058 on gifts and meals to lawmakers and elected officials from May 2013 to April 2014. This year several groups are pushing for access to more information about how lobbyists are spending those dollars.
Here’s our look at how the N.M. Legislature can be more transparent, accessible and responsive – and what’s keeping that from happening.
As referenced in our legislative guide, here’s a searchable database of capital outlay projects from 2014.
A new super PAC targets U.S. Sen. Tom Udall in the campaign’s final weekend.
Here’s a brief rundown of the top 10 Power Players – the top 10 individual donors from New Mexico between 2011 and 2014.
The top 10 New Mexico political donors between 2011 and 2014 gave nearly $3 million to state and national candidates and committees.