State Attorney General Gary King says he has returned $5,000 of a $15,000 campaign contribution from a New York City law firm, bringing King in clear compliance with new limits on the size of political donations.
Giving back the $5,000 also may undo some of the damage from a public-relations beating King has suffered from taking the money in the first place. In a campaign-finance report filed with the Secretary of State’s Office in October, King disclosed he received $15,000 the previous month from the law firm of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann. The problem: A state law that took effect in November 2010 limits contributions from an individual or company to a candidate for statewide office at $5,000 per primary or general election, or a total of $10,000 per election cycle. King argued the extra $5,000 from the law firm wasn’t illegal because the money would be used to pay off debt from his 2010 re-election campaign. The limits didn’t take effect until after the general election in 2010, and King said they applied to only campaign contributions for elections after 2010. The AG’s position caused a stir because he was a leader in getting the Legislature to pass the legislation to impose the donation limits. Also, part of his job is helping to enforce the Campaign Reporting Act, including the caps on contributions. While waiting for a committee hearing to begin Wednesday at the Legislature, King told me he returned $5,000 to the law firm just before the end of the year. He said he made the move after a discussion with Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, who sponsored the law that imposes the donation limits. The Democratic AG said Feldman told him it was her intent that the law apply to all campaign contributions after the general election in 2010, including donations of money to be used to pay off debt incurred before the election. The office of Secretary of State Dianna Duran, a Republican, who is responsible for implementing the Campaign Reporting Act and can impose fines for violations, opened an inquiry into the $15,000 contribution but didn’t levy a penalty. In its 30-day session that began this week, the Legislature again will consider some campaign finance reforms, and King again will be a major player in the discussions. The AG, Democratic Sen. Peter Wirth of Santa Fe and others have been working to tighten the legal definition of a political committee in a bid to force more groups to disclose where they get money for electioneering and how they spend it. In 2009, a federal judge sided against King in a fight over whether two nonprofits could be forced by the state to register as political committees and disclose their finances. The groups sent out election-year fliers criticizing state legislators for their voting records, but the mailings didn’t mention the election or ask constituents to vote against the lawmakers. There also is a potential problem with the new limits on the size of political contributions. Under the caps, an individual can donate a maximum of $4,600 to a candidate for the Legislature per election cycle, but a political committee can give up to $10,000. The issue: The legal definition of a political committee includes an individual who represents that he or she is a political committee. Court of Appeals race In a column Wednesday, I failed to mention that Victor S. Lopez has announced he will seek the Democratic nomination for the state Court of Appeals in the June primary. Lopez is a judge with the state Workers’ Compensation Administration in Albuquerque. Other candidates for the Court of Appeals position are appellate Judge J. Miles Hanisee and state District Judge M. Monica Zamora, both of Albuquerque. UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Thom Cole at tcole@abqjournal.com or 505-992-6280 in Santa Fe. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
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