Sen. Linda Lopez Continues Delays on Ethics Bills in NM Senate Rules Committee

By now, we can view foot dragging as a kind of tradition in the Senate Rules Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Linda Lopez (D-Albuquerque). Remember, Lopez's Committee didn't even start dealing with bills until two weeks into the Session. And you may recall that earlier this week the SRC came to order late and then spent about a half hour of its precious time listening to mini-dissertations about antelope herds by Senators Tim Jennings and Sen. Stuart Ingle.

Anything to avoid taking up the backlog of ethics and campaign finance reform bills that are languishing in the SRC. After all, Lopez, Jennings and Ingle are charter members of the status quo preservation league in the NM Senate. Get the money and unethical shenanigans out of the Roundhouse? A direct threat to a legislative way of life up there.

I guess Sen. Lopez and the gang of SunCal lobbyists were so thrilled by their victory in the Senate yesterday on the SunCal TIDD giveaway bill (SB 249) that the Senator was operating on low batteries today. The SRC didn't get to any of the ethics bills until about a half hour before they had to close up shop.

With little time left, the Committee finally took up four ethics commission bills that had been on their calendar all week. Senators Feldman and Campos introduced a substitute bill very similar to Rep. Al Park’s ethics commission bill on the House side. There seemed to be strong support for the substitute but, not surprisingly, the Committee ended its meeting without any vote being taken. Maybe next time.

Despite promises from Sen. Lopez, no combo bill emerged today to substitute for a number of campaign contribution limits measures that are sitting in the Committee. The contribution limits bills are all pretty straightforward. This isn't rocket science, but Sen. Lopez just can't seem to get it together in a timely fashion to get something finalized for a vote. At this point, is anyone unaware of why that is?