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Common Cause Poll: Huge Support for New Mexico Campaign, Ethics Reforms

poll of registered voters statewide taken by Research and Polling for Common Cause New Mexico Jan. 5 - Jan. 9, 2017 shows once again that New Mexico voters are HUGELY supportive of ethics and campaign reform measures. Exactly 459 randomly selected voters—Republicans, Democrats and Independents—responded to the telephone survey, which had a 4.6% margin of error.

“Once again we found huge levels of support for campaign and ethics reforms,” said Viki Harrison, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico. “The percentage of voters who want to see disclosure of campaign contributions and lobbyists expenditures has consistently been over 90%. You can hardly get much bigger than that.”

Harrison said Common Cause has been doing an annual poll for four years. This year she said there was a spike in the number of people who wanted to keep current contribution limits as a way to prevent corruption from 63% to 74%.  “It’s a direct message in the wake of last year’s campaigns, where the costs of New Mexico elections went up drastically,” she said.

The most recent filings at the Secretary of State’s office indicate that $10 million was spent by legislative candidates during the last cycle, and $17.5 million more by independent expenditure groups.

Among the poll’s top results:

o   Nine in ten voters (74% strongly and 16% somewhat) support a bill that would require all independent political groups who are spending money on political campaigns to report who their donors are and how the money is being spent. Nine in ten voters (91%) also support requiring all political contributions from individuals, corporations, PACs, non-profits, and unions to be made public

 

o   The vast majority of voters (90%) say it would be a good idea to require registered lobbyists to make public the bills or issues they have been hired to advocate for so that voters know who is lobbying on issues in New Mexico

 

o   Nine in ten voters statewide say they either strongly support (62%) or somewhat support (27%) the creation of an independent ethics commission that would establish and enforce rules relating to the ethical behavior and action of state officials.

o   Seven-in-ten voters also say they support creation of an independent commission that would be responsible for redrawing the state’s legislative districts, rather than having state legislators responsible for redistricting.

o   Three-quarters (74%) of voters say they support keeping limits on the amount of money that individuals can contribute to political candidates (50% are strongly supportive, 24% are somewhat supportive). Two-thirds of voters (68%) believe that limiting the amount of campaign contributions to a candidate helps to prevent corruption.

o   Approximately seven-in-ten (71%) voters believe primary elections should be open to all registered voters rather than only allowing Democrats and Republicans to vote in their respective primaries.

o   Approximately 87% (66% strongly, 21% somewhat) want to require former legislators to wait at least two years before becoming a paid lobbyist.

You can read the full report here.

            Common Cause New Mexico is dedicated to restoring the core values of American democracy, reinventing an open, honest and accountable government and empowering ordinary people to make their voices heard in the political process.