Oil and Gas Sends $2.9 Million in Campaign Cash to Roundhouse Pols – $325,000 to Progressive House Leaders
From left to right, Speaker Javier Martinez (D), House Appropriations and Finance Committee Chair and Vice Chair, Nathan Small (D) and Vice-Chair Meredith Dixon (D).
As of June, New Mexico Roundhouse Democrats, Especially Progressives, Sucked up $1.3 Million from Fracking Largess in Current Election Cycle
In just fifteen months, from April 2023 through June 2024, Oil and Gas companies, their executives, lawyers, equipment suppliers, oil field site contractors, water suppliers – including produced water research partners – and their lobbyists, donated more than $2.9 million to Roundhouse politicians, according to the latest New Mexico Secretary of State reports.
And the busiest general election campaign fundraising and spending is just getting underway.
New reports on the campaign transactions must be filed with the New Mexico Secretary of State (SOS) beginning in early September, with additional filings through and beyond Election Day in November.
In the past, the industry gave mostly to Republicans, and some Democrats that were considered conservative or “Chamber of Commerce” type Democrats.
While Republicans still hold an edge, Democrats are elbowing their way to the top sucking up more than $1.3 million Oil and Gas Industry money with an interesting twist: so-called ‘Progressive Democrats were gifted more than $800,000.
Campaign financial reports filed with the SOS between April 2023 and July 2024, reveal that the Progressive Speaker Javier Martinez and Representatives Nathan Small (Chair-HAFC), and Meredith Dixon (Vice Chair-HAFC) solicited campaign funds from oil and gas industry interests in amounts exceeding $320,000, for their own candidate committees and leadership committees under the control of Speaker Martinez.
Martinez, Small and Dixon, along with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the oil and gas lobbyists, have been among the most vocal supporters of hydrogen power development and the use of “produced water” from fracking operations.
The Trend in Corporate Giving to Democratic Politicos in New Mexico is Growing
In February 2024, Capital and Main published a story, entitled, Oil and gas donations shifting away from Republicans in New Mexico, by Jerry Redfern.
As Redfern reported: [the oil and gas] “…industry boosted its contributions to Democrats, the current dominant party in the state, while trimming back donations to Republicans, who still hold a slight lead overall, according to campaign contribution records from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.” [Emphasis added.]
House Democrats, especially those in leadership positions, have become the most proficient at increasing their financial position with the help of literally millions of dollars in corporate related giving.
Since Redfern’s reporting, reports for January through June of 2024 have become available, and Democrats collected $1.3 million from oil and gas companies – as much as $800,000 going to “progressives” who keep claiming they are protecting the “little guy.”
Companies include Chevron, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Marathon Oil, Mewbourne Oil Company, Mack Energy, Devon, Permian Resources and many others (which will be detailed in another story).
(The Candle is publishing a series on the extraordinary amount of money that corporations and organizations with interests usually in conflict with those of working families and the disadvantaged, gifted to Democrats in New Mexico.)
Democratic Leaders Quietly Exploit a Last Minute Amendment Slipped into a 2019 “Campaign Reform” Law.
In the last few years, Democrats have exploited provisions of a law passed in 2019, that was promoted as a reform and housekeeping bill.
Filed by Senate Majority leader Peter Wirth (D), SB 3, was designed as a measure to improve transparency and accountability surrounding political action committees and their fundraising.
It had the support of government watchdog organizations.
Wirth had been their champion – trying for years to get a bill not only passed by the legislature, but also signed by the Governor.
As Catherine Hinckley Kelley of the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) wrote in an April 2019 article about SB 3 and an ethics reform measure, “Years of hard work by organizations like Common Cause New Mexico, New Mexico Ethics Watch, and others helped to pave the way to 2019, with state lawmakers enacting measures that will make state government more transparent, accessible, and accountable.”
SB 3, passed the Senate with minor modifications.
But when it arrived in the House Judiciary Committee, an amendment was offered by then Representative Damon Ely (D), and seconded by then Speaker Brian Brian Egolf (D), which created a new styled “legislative caucus” campaign committee.
As will be reported in an upcoming story, reform advocates were not consulted on what Ely and Egolf were adding to SB 3; and when asked if he thought their proposal was a “friendly” amendment, Wirth basically got out of their way, allowing the change without any serious vetting.
The new law provides opportunities for unlimited amounts of cash to be funneled to the caucus committees from individual candidate committees.
Each branch of the New Mexico Legislature (the Senate and the House of Representatives) is permitted two such committees – one each for each major political party.
The Speaker Fund is one of those legislative caucus committees.
As a result of the Ely/Egolf amendment of SB 3, The Speaker Fund can (and does) solicit and receive significantly increased amounts in donations.
SB 3, gave complete control of these legislative caucus committees to the individual leader of each party in each branch, unless successfully challenged by two-thirds of the caucus.
(Readers can link to Senator Wirth’s original SB 3 (as endorsed by good government advocacy groups) by clicking here, and to the Ely/Egolf amended and chaptered version by clicking here.)
The Democratic leaders in the House set up a very slick operation for soliciting and spending, which upon close scrutiny, uses some of the provisions of the Ely/Egolf amendment to concentrate power and decision making with the sitting Speaker through a company which coordinates activities exclusively for the leadership’s agenda.
In an upcoming story, The Candle explores the advent of the partnership between the House Democrats and a “low-profile” company known as Advanced Legislative Leadership Services, LLC (ALLS LLC), which has the inside track on all things related to soliciting campaign cash, spending, and the inherent access to the Speaker and other powerful legislators.
In addition to his individual candidate campaign committee’s funds, Martinez (and Egolf before him) controls the money and operations of “The Speaker Fund.”
Martinez, Small, and Dixon routinely solicit campaign funds from traditional Democratic contributors emphasizing the need to keep them in power so they can work for progressive causes – while they have quietly filled their coffers with a lot of corporate cash – millions from oil and gas.
Pitching for campaign donations from constituents earlier this week, they wrote rhetorically, “Why do state legislature majorities matter? They determine the policies that affect our everyday lives, from protecting voting rights and expanding healthcare to funding our schools and safeguarding our environment. State legislatures are where we turn our shared vision into real change, ensuring that progress reaches every corner of New Mexico.” [Emphasis added.]
At the end of most of their fundraising emails is the following plea:
“In 2016, we took back the House from Republican control, in 2018 we greatly expanded our majority, and since 2019 we’ve been able to pass some of the most powerful legislation in our state’s history. These victories are thanks to the hard work and investments of supporters and activists like you.”
While giving lip-service to its traditional working family constituents, is the so-called “progressive wing” of the New Mexico Democratic part becoming the party of corporate interests?
Coming Soon: 12 House Democrats, who sent a letter in May to the Water Quality Control Commission advocating for a proposed rule that would open the door to using produced fracking water outside of oil field operations, collected more than $450,000 from companies seeking a relaxation of rules governing use of treated waste water from fracking.
Recent Oil and Gas Campaign Cash to New Mexico Roundhouse Politicians
| REPUBLICANS – As reported for 2023 – 2024 | $1.6 Million | 55% |
| DEMOCRATS – As reported for 2023 – 2024 | $1.3 Million | 45% |
| TOTAL – As reported for 2023 – 2024 | $2.9 Million | 100% |
Below is a screenshot from the New Mexico Secretary of State’s website regarding campaign contribution limits:
(NOTE: An earlier version of this story has been corrected, as The Candle became aware of additional funds raised for Republican candidates by individuals with interests in the oil and gas industry, and who were not easily identified as having those related interests when the first version was published. It is important to add that other contributors with oil and gas industry interests may still be among the thousands of entries in the Secretary of States records – we have included in this reporting, funds from those we could identify as having oil and gas interests.)