Last Friday the State Ethics Commission filed a lawsuit against a new non-profit organization called the “New Mexico Project,” claiming that the 501(c)(4) organization has failed to disclose their donors and expenditures as required by a state statute passed in 2019. According to the lawsuit, the New Mexico Project is focused on advocating for moderate candidates seeking election to at least 15 legislative districts in the 2024 election.
What got our attention in this matter is the swift and heavy-handed action of the State Ethics Commission against the New Mexico Project, which has only been in existence for a few months. The State Ethics Commission has dismissed several citizen-filed complaints alleging years-long, serious, and entrenched corruption against top-level democrats as covered by the Estancia News. Possibly the most egregious abuse of power highlighted by the citizen-filed complaints is that the Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, allowed a libertarian Secretary of State candidate to appear on the 2022 General Election ballot who never filed the required campaign committee paperwork, did not collect enough valid signatures to appear on the ballot, and moved out of New Mexico before the election took place. The dismissal letters from the Ethics Commission conceded that the libertarian candidate did not live in the state, admitted they had done no investigation into the existence of the missing paperwork, but claimed they had no authority to investigate the matter further.
If the State Ethics Commission has no authority to investigate the matter of the Secretary of State placing a fake libertarian candidate on the ballot for her own benefit, why are they suddenly able to sue a non-profit in a desperate hurry to find out who is financially backing 15 legislative candidates in New Mexico?
We found it odd that the Ethics Commission’s lawsuit mentions that the candidates supported by the New Mexico Project are sympathetic toward the oil and gas industry, because we couldn’t find such a statement anywhere on the group’s website.
The current radical leadership of New Mexico want to effectively ban the sale of gas-powered cars in New Mexico by 2035, which would be a huge blow to New Mexico’s oil and gas industry which accounts for over 100,000 jobs and $4 billion in direct revenue. Of course, the radical left has no plan to replace those jobs or that tax income after they attain their green utopia. Is the State Ethics Commission acting on behalf of the radical left faction of the Democrat Party to try to pull support from candidates who don’t want to cripple New Mexico by destroying one of its biggest industries for a pipe dream of climate alarmists?
There are red flags about the New Mexico Project as well. Two of the “moderate” politicians they support have been covered by the Estancia News for their own corrupt actions: Representative Jared Hembree (Republican, House District 59) and Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto (Democrat, Senate District 15).
Representative Jared Hembree obtained his position recently through highly suspect nepotistic actions of his fellow partners at the Hinkle Shanor Law Firm – which has the second most lucrative contract for doing legal work for the State of New Mexico. Two Hinkle Shanor partners and one Hinkle Shanor partner’s wife now have seats in the legislature, despite a constitutional provision preventing them from holding office at the same time they hold contracts with the State of New Mexico.
Daniel Ivey-Soto’s main accomplishment during his tenure in the legislature is the systematic weakening of New Mexico’s election laws to destroy transparency and protect corrupt election system vendors and clerks, while enriching himself at taxpayers’ expense. The reason New Mexico is suffering under the current radical leadership is a direct result of the implementation of election policies advocated by Ivey-Soto. Ivey-Soto is the reason radical leftists have attained their current positions, but now that they have been the beneficiaries of a rigged system, they appear to be eager to destroy him through allegations of sexual misconduct and cessation of lucrative contracts.
It appears to us that this spat between the State Ethics Commission and the New Mexico Project is indicative of a schism that has emerged in New Mexico’s radical-left Democrat establishment. This is not surprising as a mass exodus away from the Democrat party, particularly by Latino voters, is happening nationwide as voters feel the profound destructive effects of radical leftist policies in their lives. Thus, it is not surprising that entrenched politicians who can see the writing on the wall for their party would want to preserve their places of power by distancing themselves from their radical colleagues through initiatives like the New Mexico Project.
The fact that the New Mexico Ethics Commission is going to great lengths to unmask donors who supported “moderate” candidates, while ignoring far more serious evidence of corruption with the highest-level office holders, tells us they have become nothing more than protectors of the radical left.
We also question the judgement of the donors behind the New Mexico Project that are supporting the likes of equally corrupt legislators like Daniel Ivey-Soto and Jared Hembree. New Mexico needs honest leaders with common sense who genuinely view themselves as servants of their constituency and are not using their positions to enrich themselves or ram an ideology down the throats of New Mexicans against their will.
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