Letter to State Ethics Commission re NMSOP's Lobbying Disclosure

Sara Berger Letter.pdf

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Caroline Chato

Chief Compliance Counsel

State Ethics Commission

800 Bradbury Drive Southeast, Suite 215 Albuquerque, NM 87106

Via email: Caroline.Chato@state.nm.us

Re: New Mexico Safety Over Profit

Dear Ms. Chato:

This firm represents New Mexico Safety Over Profit (“NMSOP”). I write in response to your letter to my client dated May 13, 2025, requesting my client register and report a lobbying advertising campaign.

As you noted in your letter to my client, NMSOP reported its expenditures through its lobbyist employer registration. NMSA § 2-11-6(A) provides in pertinent part:

Each lobbyist who receives compensation or lobbyist's employer who makes or incurs expenditures... shall file an expenditure report with the secretary of state using an electronic reporting system approved by the secretary of state in accordance with Section 2-11-7 NMSA 1978. The expenditure report shall include a sworn statement that sets forth:

...(2) each individual expenditure of one hundred dollars ($100) or more made or incurred by the employer or lobbyist during the covered reporting period, indicating the amount spent and a description of the expenditure. The list shall be separated into the following categories:

(a) meals and beverages;(b) other entertainment expenditures; and (c) other expenditures;

This method of reporting fully satisfies NMSOP’s reporting obligations pursuant to the Lobbyist Regulation Act (“LRA”) and is also the method that my client was instructed by the SoS to use to report these expenditures.

Furthermore, your statement that “Section 2-11-6(I) required NMSOP to register and report...” is incorrect. The plain language of the LRA requires an organization to register and report a lobbying advertising campaign only when “not otherwise reported under the Lobbyist Regulation Act.” NMSA § 2-11-6(I). In this case, NMSOP reported its expenditures as a lobbyist employer.

The LRA provides that the SoS “shall advise and seek to educate all persons required to perform duties pursuant to the Lobbyist Regulation Act of those duties.” NMSA § 2-11- 8.2(A).The SoS advised NMSOP to file these expenditures through its lobbyist employer registration. The SoS can confirm that the filing of a lobbyist employer expenditure report satisfies compliance with the LRA.

Sincerely,

Sara Berger

cc. Peter Auh, General Counsel, New Mexico Office of Secretary of State (peter.auh@sos.nm.gov)Encl.