Copyright © 2020 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE – When New Mexico’s Legislature is in session, there can be nearly as many oil and gas industry lobbyists in the Roundhouse as lawmakers, according to a new report.
And the industry, which deployed roughly 90 lobbyists representing more than 60 companies over a six-year period, has been generous when it comes to campaign contributions for New Mexico candidates and elected officials.
Oil and gas executives, corporations and lobbyists – along with affiliated political committees – made $11.5 million in campaign contributions from 2017 until 2020, according to the report, released Tuesday by Common Cause New Mexico and New Mexico Ethics Watch.
That includes $2 million that Chevron used, through a political committee, to launch TV ads in the 2018 land commissioner race between Democrat Stephanie Garcia Richard and Republican Pat Lyons.
Despite being targeted by the Chevron ad blitz, Garcia Richard won the race.
“The recent oil boom in New Mexico has unleashed more than an ocean of oil and gas money; it has unleashed a gusher of campaign contributions, a flurry of lobbyists offering expensive dinners, and a mammoth public relations offensive financed by one of the largest and most powerful professional associations in the state,” said Heather Ferguson, the executive director of Common Cause New Mexico.
The report also highlighted several pieces of legislation that were stymied amid opposition from the oil and natural gas industry, including a 2019 bill that would have increased royalty rates on oil leased and produced on state trust lands.
While the report’s authors said they were not implying lawmakers’ votes had been purchased by campaign contributions, they said legislators who voted to table the bill got more campaign funds from the oil and gas industry than did lawmakers who voted to advance it.
Robert McEntyre, the communications director for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said the report was a “one-sided attack” on the oil and natural gas industry that ignored spending by out-of-state activists who have sought to curb oil drilling levels.
“While our state and country are experiencing one of the greatest health and economic crises we have ever seen, it is appalling that groups like this continue to engage in divisive political attacks,” McEntyre said in a statement.
New Mexico state spending is largely reliant on revenue generated by the oil and gas industry, which makes up about 40% of the state’s total general fund revenue.
In all, the extractive industries contributed roughly $3.1 billion in tax payments and royalties to the state’s coffers in the 2019 budget year, according to a report by the New Mexico Tax Research Institute.
Attempts to require lobbyists to disclose which bills they’ve lobbied lawmakers on has failed to win approval in recent years at the Roundhouse.
