Legislative roundup

Days remaining in session: 10

PAC man: The political action committee for the House Democrats is walking back a fundraising email sent over the weekend, smack dab in the middle of what is known as the “prohibited period” — the time around each session when legislators are barred from soliciting campaign donations.

The email from the New Mexico House Democratic Campaign Committee touted the caucus’ work at the 30-day session’s halfway point.

And at the bottom, it included a link that said “contribute.”

That would seem to violate the rules. After all, legislators usually take down “donate” buttons on their webpages ahead of the session.

But the Secretary of State’s Office said the committee had asked whether a legislator can lend his or her name to a PAC for fundraising during the session.

The rules do not bar a political committee from continuing to raise money, the Secretary of State’s Office said.

And the email from the House Democrats’ campaign committee did not name any individual legislators.

Still, the committee followed up the next day with an email apologizing to supporters. It meant to include a link at the bottom of the email to share the message, not to donate, the committee wrote.

House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said the emails were legally sound but added that he would prefer the PAC not solicit donations in the middle of the prohibited period.

Tell them how you really feel: It is part of just about every

committee hearing at the Roundhouse. At some point, committee chairmen open up the floor to anyone sitting in the gallery who might wish to speak about a particular piece of legislation.

Cabinet secretaries, lobbyists, students, activists — everyone gets a moment to make their case.

But having your voice heard means being in the right place at the right time, sometimes sitting through hours of discussion about other legislation before lawmakers turn their attention to your issue. Oftentimes, committees shake up their agendas with little notice.

The Senate Rules Committee gave its approval Monday for an online system that would allow the public to send comments on legislation directly to committees.

The Legislature’s website, nmlegis.gov, already lists contact information for each lawmaker. But there is no one place on that website to send a message to an entire committee.

“It just struck me that in a state as rural as ours, in a Legislature that runs in as unpredictable method as ours, we have some method for the expressing of their views,” said Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, who is sponsoring the measure.

Known as Senate Concurrent Resolution 1, the measure would require support from two-thirds of all members in both the House and Senate.

Dummy down: The League of Women Voters on Monday renewed its objections to legislators introducing blank bills, also called dummy bills, that can be turned into a specific proposal without public notice.

“Legislators file these bills just before the deadline in order to skirt the filing rules,” the League said in a statement.

It added that no legitimate purpose is served with dummy bills.

“There is no need for this practice, since appropriations bills are exempt from the deadline,” said Judy Williams, the League’s New Mexico president. “The dummy bills deny the public the right to know what their Legislature is considering.” She has a good point. Lawmakers in 2013 used a dummy bill to blend a corporate tax cut with several unrelated proposals. That bill, though protested by several legislators, received approval in the final hour of the session.

Quote of the Day: “That’s the shortest I ever heard you speak. I hadn’t finished eating my cookie,” Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, to Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, after Ivey-Soto explained his bill to enact changes to the state’s background-check process for school personnel in about 30 seconds. Soules, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, held the bill over until Wednesday’s committee hearing to give Ivey-Soto time to make amendments.