Friday, July 27, 2012

The Selling and Buying of Public Offices in New Mexico

It was a dismal day when a democratic candidate opened his hand and accepted large sums of money (i.e. campaign donations) from big oil and gas companies to run against other democratic candidates for the Public Regulation Commission.

It was even a more dismal day when that same candidate sided with the Republican Party to gut the New Mexican Voter Action Act in court. The act provides for public funding of candidates running for public offices such as Public Regulation Commission, The New Mexico Court of Appeals and The New Mexico State Supreme Court.

These are public offices that we do not want brought and paid for by large corporations because they have a direct affect on the daily lives of most New Mexicans and their pocketbooks. To have one of our own candidates help the Republican Party in their cause to advance the selling and buying of public offices in this state is just unforgivable. It saddens the voting public.

Senator Tom Udall is leading the charge in Washington D.C. to try to put an end to the undesirable consequences of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling when it comes to the Citizen United cases.

It will be very difficult to get a new provision pasted in Santa Fe that will provide publicly funded candidates a way to match private funds acquired by the paid corporate co-conspirator candidates who run in future races.

Public funded for elections were created to level the playing field for all candidates in this state. Without the matching funding to overcome the outrages amounts spent by corporations, the field will be total unbalanced.