Step out of the shadows
Astory about the city of Santa Fe’s proposed soda-pop tax brought back a bad memory from the recent session of the state Legislature.
I’m talking about an article by my colleague, Daniel Chacón, on a group called Smart Progress New Mexico, which is opposing the tax, and which has refused to file a campaign finance disclosure statement with the city even though it has spent money for radio advertising and a petition drive. Furthermore, a spokesman told Chacón that the group has no intention to disclose its contributors.
“I’m not going to publish who our donors are, no. I don’t have to,” spokesman Loveless Johnson said. “I’m not going to. You can ask me every day, but I’m never going to tell you.”
The city attorney disagrees, saying the donors should be disclosed.
Flashback to one of those seemingly endless night floor sessions in the House of Representatives.
It was the night the House debated Senate Bill 96, designed to force “dark money” organizations and other independent-expenditure groups to report their high-dollar contributors.
But some House members don’t like this idea. Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Logan, argued that requiring candidates to disclose the names of campaign contributors is fine. It’s a good way to see to whom politicians might owe favors, he said. But Roch said those who give big bucks to groups advocating for or against ballot measures shouldn’t be subjected to the same public scrutiny. “Ballot measures can’t do favors for contributors,” he argued.
Rep. Jim Smith, R-Sandia Park, who sponsored the measure, along with Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, didn’t buy that argument. Smith countered that people have the right to know who is running ads for or against such measures. Roch fought back, using a word I’d never before heard applied to campaign finance laws. He said the danger was that such information — the names of campaign contributors — could be “weaponized” and used against people who donate.
As an example, Roch told of a Mozilla executive — and creator of the JavaScript programming language — Brendan Eich, who in 2008 donated $1,000 to a group in favor of California’s Proposition 8 to ban same-sex marriage in California. Six years later, that contribution came back to bite him after he was named chief executive officer. After a firestorm of protest that included threats of a boycott, Eich resigned from Mozilla.
Though I believe Proposition 8 was a wrong-headed, misguided effort, I agree with Roch that Eich got a rotten deal. There was no evidence he had ever discriminated against gay or lesbian employees at Mozilla. But his example should not be used as an excuse for dark money.
On Friday, Gov. Susana Martinez took a stand on this issue by vetoing SB 96. This money from the independent expenditure groups will remain dark — probably, at least, until a new governor is elected.
“While I support efforts to make our political process more transparent, the broad language in this bill could lead to unintended consequences that could force groups like charities to disclose the names and addresses of their donors in certain circumstances,” she wrote in her veto message.
By my count, that’s at least three times this year Martinez touted her belief in transparency while vetoing a transparency bill.
Here’s the deal: Nearly every day for more than 35 years, I have put my name on published newspaper articles, columns and blog posts. I’m not holding myself up to be some kind of hero. This is the case with every journalist at any mainstream publication.
Most of what I write doesn’t deal in opinions. But in the realm of political journalism, I quickly learned that almost any story can become controversial and evoke accusations of bias or unsavory motives. Sometimes there are consequences to that. When you put your name to your words, you can be challenged on social media, get blasted in the comments section or letters to the editor, and mocked by the governor’s attorney in a court of law. You can receive threats of violence against your family members, as happened to me more than 20 years ago while covering a murder trial.
Our bylines routinely are “weaponized” against us.
Whether or not you like the soda tax — and I’m not that crazy about the idea — Mayor Javier Gonzales has put his name on the proposal. The mysterious Smart Progress New Mexico should do the same.