Commentary: Senator Lee Cotter (R-Las Cruces) is committed to ensuring candidates be honest when they run for office.
He is sponsoring a bill he believes will encourage candidates for public office to be more honest in how their campaign dollars are spent by knowing the auditors of their campaign reports have an effective tool that they currently don’t have easy access to.
That tool for the Secretary of State’s office (SOS) is easy access to campaign bank records without a court order. That tool will make it actually possible to verify if how a campaign check was written was actually paid out that way.
Currently, the Secretary of State’s office has the legal obligation to audit ten percent of campaign finance records. But the SOS does not have the ability to verify how the checks were actually written and paid out. The SOS auditors can only look at campaign reports that the candidates fill in, they don’t have access to campaign bank accounts, unless they go to court for a court order. Senator Cotter’s bill makes it easier for the SOS to verify the checks without having to get a court order.
“Do voters want a criminal or a lawmaker? I am committed to pushing for more honesty in campaigning,” Senator Cotter said. “Candidates running for office would be encouraged to be honest and more accurate when writing campaign checks if they knew the audit of their accounts would actually include examining checks and campaign checking accounts, not just looking at their reports they filled in.”
Senator Cotter’s bill requires the SOS to alert the candidates their campaign records are being examined. It does not infer wrongdoing, only that there will be an examination.