It’s the legislative session and that means the calendars of many lawmakers are filled not just with committee hearings but also receptions and dinners. But while lobbyists are spending big to get some facetime with legislators, lawmakers aren’t supposed to be raising money while on the job. Still, there’s a loophole.
It's illegal for legislators and candidates for the legislature to ask for campaign donations during the session.
It's called the prohibited period and it starts on January 1st each year and continues until lawmakers adjourn.
"Lawmakers should not be taking money from other people while they are in session and making policy decisions," said Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque. She chairs the Senate Rules Committee.
But Duhigg said that while lawmakers can't ask for money, nothing stops them from taking donations that are offered to them.
KUNM found legislators received more than $55,000 in donations during last year's prohibited period. Those donations went to more than two dozen lawmakers, including Democrats and Republicans.
And many of those donations came from large corporations that actively lobbied lawmakers during the session.
Again, though, it's not illegal for those companies to donate. Lawmakers just can't ask for the money.
"During the prohibited period, I can't ask you for a donation," Duhigg said. "But if I go home on the weekend and open my mailbox and there's a donation there, there's nothing in the law to keep me from accepting it during this prohibited period and putting it in my bank account."
Duhigg is co-sponsoring a bill that would close that loophole.
Senate Bill 42 would make it illegal to not only solicit but to also accept donations during the prohibited period from lobbyists or from companies and organizations that employ lobbyists.
That would apply to legislators and legislative candidates as well as, for the first time, legislative caucus committees. Those are fundraising vehicles for legislative leaders and have higher donation limits than candidates face. That means caucus committees can raise several times as much money from any one donor.
Many states have similar rules. Alaska, Indiana and Georgia, for example, ban lawmakers from accepting donations from anyone during a session.
Other states, including Colorado, expressly prohibit donations from lobbyists when lawmakers are meeting or when legislation is pending before the governor.
But some legislators question whether the policy is really necessary. Sen. Liza Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, spoke against it during a Senate Rules Committee hearing earlier this month.
“Madame Chair, I believe this puts another burden on elected officials who are serving in office."
Like other critics, she argued that the law complicates the campaign finance rules that an unpaid legislature has to follow.
Lawmakers also note that many donations reported during the prohibited period come in right before the session starts and aren’t deposited into campaign war chests until after it begins.
But even right before a session, lawmakers already know what bills they’ll be sponsoring and what issues they’ll be tackling.
Still, Stefanics says that just because some donors give money during the session, it’s not going to sway her vote.
“I don’t let my votes be bought, as people know," Stefanics said. "But I don’t see it as influencing me.”
She pushed the committee to scrap a part of the proposed law that would have required lawmakers to either return donations they receive during the prohibited period or send those donations to the state public election fund, which pays for public financing of campaigns.
The committee agreed to strip out that section. The Senate Judiciary Committee also removed a provision that would have prohibited lawmakers from taking contributions from anyone during the session, not just lobbyists.
And it includes an exception for people who make regular, small donations to a candidate. Like $10 a month.
Still, similar bills have failed in past sessions.
Senate Bill 42 passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week and heads next to a vote of the full Senate.
This reporting was supported by America Amplified, an initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting