The State Ethics Commission filed a lawsuit against The New Mexico Project (“TNMP”) and Jeff Apodaca to enforce the disclosure provisions of the Campaign Reporting Act (“CRA”), a press release stated. The release states TNMP, a domestic nonprofit corporation, or Apodaca spent thousands of dollars on creating and hosting a website and purchased radio and social media advertisements to influence the outcome of elections for at least 15 legislative districts in the New Mexico House of Representatives and Senate.
City Desk ABQ reached out to Apodaca for comment but did not hear back as of press time.
The CRA requires those who have made aggregate independent expenditures in excess of $1,000 dollars in a non-statewide election to disclose to whom those expenditures were made and the source of the contributions that funded the expenditures. TNMP has made more than $1,000 dollars in independent expenditures in support of specific “pro-moderate” and “pro-business” candidates but has failed to register as a political committee or make any disclosures related to those independent expenditures. Accordingly, the Commission filed suit to enforce the CRA’s disclosure requirements.
In 2019, the Legislature amended the CRA, requiring groups that pay for advertisements or advocacy in support of candidates to be minimally transparent about who funded those efforts. The State Ethics Commission has the authority to enforce the CRA and has pursued civil enforcement actions to bring transparency regarding who is funding and coordinating election advertisements, states the release.