Officials: Campaign finance rule too broad

CLOVIS — State legislators representing eastern New Mexico are encouraging residents to make their voices heard this week on a proposed rule change to state campaign finance law.

State representatives Dennis Roch, R-Logan, and Bob Wooley, R-Roswell, are among five authors of a statement issued this week urging citizens to weigh in on a new rule that would require more transparency in reporting the identities of individual donors to political causes in the state.

The statement suggests the new rule “will not provide more government transparency, but will actually violate the privacy of donors and chill charitable giving by requiring the disclosure of the names and addresses of donors,” and that it would “likely be used by government officials to intimidate individuals and the nonprofit organizations they give to.”

The new rule was advanced by Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver after Senate Bill 96, upon which the rule is based, passed the state Legislature in April but was vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez.

In her veto message, Martinez wrote “while I support efforts to make our political process more transparent, the broad language in the bill could lead to unintended consequences that would force groups like charities to disclose the names and addresses of their contributors in certain circumstances.”

Representative Randy Crowder, R-Clovis, said Friday he was “concerned that they’re trying to make (the rule) so broad that it’s going to have a lot of unintended consequences.”

The draft of the new rule, available on the secretary of state’s website, refers to “independent expenditure” groups not addressed by the state’s existing Campaign Reporting Act.

As defined in the rule, “independent expenditure” refers to any expenditure “made by a person other than a candidate or campaign committee” that pays for an advertisement that “expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate or the passage or defeat of a clearly identified ballot measure.”

By the terms laid out in the proposed rule, any person who contributes more than $1,000 in independent expenditures during the election cycle will be required to report their name, address, and other information.

A person contributing more than $3,000 in independent expenditures will need to report the name and address of each person who contributed $200 or more toward that sum in the past year.

Roch, whose district includes parts of Curry, Quay and Roosevelt counties, said Friday that the current language of the rule was such that the new reporting requirements could be bypassed if a person donated to a sister organization of their chosen charity in a different state. He was also concerned about the rule’s encroachment on citizen privacy.

“What we spend our money on as Americans is an extension of our freedom of speech,” he said. “And boy, (this rule) has a chilling effect on donors to non-profits ... It’s not even limited to donating to campaigns. It would be any non-profit or charity that advocates for a cause.”

Toulouse Oliver extended the public comment period to 5 p.m. Wednesday with public hearings on the rule scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in Albuquerque and Las Cruces, respectively.