After sixty whirlwind days the 2025 legislative session is now closed. We at Common Cause are excited to report on some of our legislative highlights and showcase some major wins for New Mexicans.

Democracy, elections, and transparency are major priorities of Common Cause and took focus this session with the passage of four major pieces of legislation:

• Senate Bill 16 (Sponsored by Senators Figueroa and Wirth and Representatives Cates, Parajon and Rubio): New Mexicans who are unaffiliated to a political party or registered as “decline to state” will be able to request a ballot from a major party during a primary election.
• House Bill 143 (Sponsored by Senator Steinborn and Representative Silva): The bill will require lobbyists to report on their activities throughout the legislative session. The reports will increase transparency by identifying agencies and organizations who work to influence legislation.
• House Joint Resolution 2 (Sponsored by Senators Cervantes and Woods and Representatives McQueen, Montoya and Szczepanski): The bill requires the governor to provide reasoning with vetoed legislation. The bill prevents legislation from pocket veto or being passed by the congress but goes unsigned by the governor.
• Senate Bill 5 (Sponsored by Senators Campos, Wirth and Brantley, and Representatives McQueen and Small): This bill reforms the Game Commission and decentralizes the power of the governor in its control. The bill will increase New Mexico’s disproportionately low game and fish license fees and allow the Commission to work on conservation and restoration efforts.

Other democracy legislation that didn’t quite make it across the finish line:

Common Cause monitored multiple pieces of legislation which made significant progress with lawmakers alongside these wins. Although these pieces of legislation cleared one chamber in the Roundhouse, they did not receive the committee hearings needed to further their progress. In only 60 days, every piece of legislation is up against the clock to make it through both the House of Representatives and the Senate. House Joint Resolution 1 proposed improving efficiency by replacing the annual 60/30-day sessions with equal 45-day sessions. Though we appreciate the efforts to change the length of our legislative sessions, Common Cause will only support efforts that would lengthen our sessions to at least 60-days every year. HJR 1 would have only rearranged the legislative calendar and could have caused more bottlenecks in what was historically a 60-day session.

Common Cause is committed to working on behalf of increasing voter access and participation. Senate Joint Resolution 11 would have scheduled school elections concurrent to regular elections, aiming to increase voter participation and lessen the expense of conducting stand-alone education elections, but unfortunately did not receive a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. House Bill 208 would have allowed for voter registration when registering for hunting or fishing licenses, promoting election participation in rural areas of New Mexico and did not get scheduled in the Senate Rules Committee.

Efforts to increase electoral transparency through disclosure of private financial contributions to campaigns and causes were proposed in Senate Bill 85, sponsored by Senators Peter Wirth & Heather Berghmans. We believe New Mexico has strong campaign finance law, but SB 85 would have closed major loopholes that allow for special interest big spenders to participate in our elections behind the scenes. Along with these electoral and transparency issues, Common Cause focused on protecting democracy. House Bill 84 would have prohibited employers from forcing employees to attend political speeches or activities but was never heard in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Not all measures to progress democracy, elections, and transparency shared the same level of favorable momentum. These bills had less support and did not proceed out of committee to a floor vote. Efforts to limit the amount of bills lawmakers introduce during the legislative session and expand the scope of topics which can be addressed were the focus of House Concurrent Resolution 1 and House Joint Resolution 8. Protecting the identities of poll workers and improving their training were proposed with Senate Bill 218. Elections were also the focus of House Joint Resolution 10 which attempted to provide Constitutional protection for voting with a felony conviction and establish a path for incarcerated individuals to vote.

Various proposals to increase transparency also failed to receive the committee hearings needed to proceed. Senate Bill 248 called for better reporting of lobbyist expenditures and increased regulation. Senate Bill 90 attempted to address the ethical implications of legislators becoming lobbyists directly after office by adding a two-year waiting period.

We’re not going to give up on modernization New Mexico’s Legislature…

In this session, Common Cause continued the push for the modernization of New Mexico’s legislature. As the last unpaid legislature in the United States, members must have the secured financial means and free time to serve their constituents. New Mexicans deserve a professional legislature comprised of even more equitable and diverse members. Introduced by Senators Figueroa, Wirth and Duhigg, Senate Joint Resolution 1, would have given voters the right to make this choice. In addition to the support of Common Cause, SJR1 was empowered by a large coalition of nearly 20 organizations fighting for change. Despite the support of the public through hundreds of letters, coalition partners and other legislators, SJR1 was killed in the Senate Finance Committee. A committee which is led by some of the wealthiest individuals in the legislature made the decision to take the choice away from voters.

A second attempt was made following the actions of the Senate Finance Committee to revive the effort with House Joint Resolution 18, introduced by Representatives Rubio, Garratt, and Anaya. HJR 18 was referred to the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee, but was not scheduled for a hearing.

Common Cause extends a sincere thank you to all the Senators and Representatives who have worked tirelessly to champion positive changes for the community we call home.

We look forward to continuing this fight with our coalition partners on behalf of all New Mexicans. We are grateful for your continued support and look forward to working alongside you to continue strengthening our democracy.