Ask Your Legislators to Sign the Voters First Pledge

As you probably know by now, many of our New Mexico legislators haven't exactly rushed to jump on the clean elections bandwagon. Like last year, there's an abundance of foot dragging and a pile of excuses on the part of lawmakers in Santa Fe regarding expanding voluntary public campaign financing beyond appellate judge and PRC contests.

I guess too many of our state reps and senators like the thrill of collecting big sums of money from the vested special interests that bring their business onto the House and Senate floors for passage. What fun would it be to serve the people's interests and have to forego all those cash advances for legislation to please the donors? I know that a great many of our lawmakers are honest, but it's time to make it easier for good candidates to run against the bad eggs who are beholden to all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons.

Common Cause New Mexico has come up with way to try and prod the lawmakers who are supposed to represent us into taking a public stand on public financing. By clicking here you can ask your state legislators to take the (pdf). It asks them to pledge to put voters first and work to pass and enforce legislation for full voluntary public campaign financing for statewide offices, extending the legislation already in place for New Mexico appellate court judge races and the Public Regulation Commission.

Shortly after the legislative session, Common Cause New Mexico will release a 2008 Ethics Reform Report Card to let voters know the degree to which their legislators support much-needed ethics reform in New Mexico. The Report Card will be partially based on their Voters First Pledge. Now's the time to hold them accountable. Ask your legislators to take the Voters First Pledge.