Senate Dems back end to campaign fund limits

Lawmakers argue change will help fight ‘dark money’

Lawmakers argue changing the law will help fight the use of “dark money” in campaigns.

Six years ago, the state Legislature passed and the governor signed a bill that established limits on campaign contributions in statewide and legislative races in New Mexico. On Tuesday, a Senate committee voted to abolish those limits.

With bipartisan support, the Senate Rules Committee passed Senate Bill 689, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen.

Sanchez said in an interview after the vote that he introduced the bill in an effort to get contributors to give directly to candidates’ campaigns rather than to independent expenditure groups, such as super PACS and nonprofits, which are neither subject to contribution limits nor required to disclose the names of donors.

Sanchez noted the campaign contribution limits were passed before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which found limitations on contributions to independent expenditure groups are an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech.

“The intent was good before the Supreme Court said that corporations were citizens,” Sanchez said. “I think this will level the playing field.”

Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, who also voted for the bill, said doing away with contribution limits could make elections more transparent. “Right now, in a post-Citizens United World, there’s an incentive to give dark money.”

Only one Rules Committee member voted against Sanchez’s bill. Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, told a reporter he believes Sanchez’s bill, introduced late in the session, was just to “make a point.”

Rue said doing away with campaign contribution limits would not stop “dark money.” Said the senator: “I want to require all these groups to report their contributions. Full disclosure is the only thing that solves the problem.”

Candelaria agreed with Rue that the independent expenditure groups should be required to report their donors.

He said that in addition to Sanchez’s bill, the Legislature also should pass a bill aimed at requiring independent expenditure groups that buy advertising and mailers during New Mexico election campaigns to disclose their contributors. Such a bill — House Bill 278, sponsored by Rep. Jim Smith, R-Sandia Park, and Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe — is winding its way through House committees.

Smith’s bill would double the limits for contributions in legislative primary election races — to $5,000 from $2,500 — and increase contribution limits by the same amount for general election races. That’s the same limit set for statewide candidates, including those running for governor.

The executive director of an organization that long has advocated for campaign finance reform is not enamored with Sanchez’s bill.

“Common Cause New Mexico worked for years to get contribution limits in place back in 2009, and we do not support repealing them,” Viki Harrison said Tuesday.

Only four states do not have any campaign spending limits, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Although the New Mexico law that established campaign limits was passed in 2009, it didn’t go into effect until after the 2010 election.

The reason for the delay was that at the time the bill was being debated in the Legislature, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish already had raised more than $1 million for her 2010 gubernatorial race — far more than anyone else from either party. Denish, a Democrat, lost in 2010 to Republican Susana Martinez.

Last year’s election was the first governor’s race in which campaign contribution limits were in place.

SB 689 goes next to the Senate Judiciary Committee.