NM Ethics Commission files lawsuit in an attempt to compel group to disclose donors

SANTA FE — The state Ethics Commission has filed a lawsuit seeking to compel a nonprofit group to disclose its contributors after it spent roughly $56,000 last year in a campaign against changes to New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws.

The group, called New Mexico Safety Over Profit, is one of several organizations that engaged in advocacy on the issue during the run-up to this year’s 60-day legislative session.

But unlike other groups, it has declined to divulge its donors and other information related to its advertising campaign, which included full-page newspaper ads and social media posts.

“New Mexicans have a right to know who is funding lobbying campaigns so that both New Mexicans and their elected representatives can better evaluate the messages of those lobbying campaigns,” state Ethics Commission Executive Director Jeremy Farris said in a Monday statement.

He also said the lawsuit is intended to ensure all organizations advocating for legislative action are held to the same standard.

But New Mexico Safety Over Profit’s Executive Director Jon Lipshutz responded to the lawsuit by saying the group is confident it has complied with New Mexico’s campaign finance laws.

“This lawsuit is a distraction and a troubling escalation,” Lipshutz said in a statement. “At a time when out-of-state hospital corporations and insurance interests are spending heavily to influence health care policy behind closed doors, it’s telling that the Ethics Commission has chosen to single out the one organization fighting to protect patients.”

Lipshutz is also the campaign manager for Sam Bregman, the Bernalillo County district attorney who launched his campaign for governor in April.

New Mexico Safety Over Profit, an Albuquerque-based group, describes itself on its website as a “network of individuals and families harmed by big corporations, institutions and profit-driven systems.” But the organization has declined to provide the names of its members, according to a report by Searchlight New Mexico.

In its lawsuit filed last week in state court in Albuquerque, the state Ethics Commission cited state lobbying laws that it says require organizations that launch public advertising campaigns to register with the Secretary of State’s Office and disclose both their donors and expenditures.

Disputes over political spending are not new in New Mexico, as previous disagreements prompted lawmakers in 2019 to approve legislation requiring more disclosure from independent expenditure groups, or those that spend money on political ads but do not coordinate with candidates or campaigns.

But the 2019 law has not eliminated such disputes entirely, as nonprofit groups are allowed to distribute educational materials in some cases without disclosing their donors.

Meanwhile, New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws have emerged in recent years as a hot-button political issue amid a longstanding health care provider shortage.

Critics argue the state’s current laws, which were overhauled during the 2021 legislative session, has led to skyrocketing legal insurance costs.

But recent proposals to alter the law have failed to gain traction in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. A bill filed during this year’s session seeking to limit attorney’s fees in such cases stalled in its first assigned Senate committee amid opposition from trial lawyers and patients harmed in medical malpractice cases.

However, lawmakers did approve separate legislation expanding a state law that gives state regulators the authority to approve, or disapprove, proposed hospital mergers and acquisitions.