Guv signs contribution-limits, reporting bills

Posted 4/02/2009 03:05:00 PM

As expected, Gov. Bill Richardson signed bills today that will enact campaign contribution limits and require more frequent filing of campaign finance reports.

The contribution-limit bill is Senate Bill 116, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. It will limit contributions to non-statewide candidates for office -- including legislative candidates -- to $2,300 per election from any entity except a political committee, which could give a maximum of $5,000 to non-statewide candidates. It will limit contributions to statewide candidates for office, political action committees and political parties to $5,000 per election from individuals and groups.

There are two elections -- a primary and a general -- in each election cycle.

The bill takes effect immediately following the 2010 election.

The other bill Richardson signed today is Senate Bill 128, sponsored by Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe. It will require that candidates file reports of expenditures and contributions twice a year in off-election years. Currently, the law requires that annually.

In signing the contribution-limits bill, Richardson, who is barred from seeking a third term, said he would have signed the bill even if it applied to him, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

“It levels the playing field,” the Journal quoted Richardson as saying at today’s bill-signing ceremony.