Dark Money Group Unmasked by the New Mexico Ethics Commission
By Fred Nathan, Executive Director, Think New Mexico
Earlier this summer, a dark money group called “New Mexico Safety Over Profit” (NMSOP) was sued by the state Ethics Commission for refusing to comply with the state law that required them to disclose the sources of their funding. NMSOP was the public face of the opposition to Think New Mexico’s proposed reforms to the medical malpractice law during the last legislative session.
NMSOP was adamant that they would not reveal their donors, telling the investigative news outlet Searchlight New Mexico: “We certainly will not be disclosing our donors, nor do we have to.”
NMSOP has now done just that.
In order to settle the 73-page legal action filed by the New Mexico Ethics Commission, NMSOP is paying a $5,000 fine, the maximum amount authorized for violations of the Lobbyist Regulation Act, and releasing their full list of donors.
So who was secretly funding this dark money group?
As it turns out, 100% of their donors are trial lawyers, law firms, and one paralegal. A full 78.5% of their donors are current board members or past presidents of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association (which is itself listed as a donor). You can see the full list posted on Think New Mexico’s website.
NMSOP didn’t want the public to know this because they were trying to present themselves as a grassroots group of regular New Mexicans who opposed medical malpractice reform. On their website, they claim: “We are a network of individuals and families harmed by big corporations, institutions and profit-driven systems:
Thanks to the New Mexico Ethics Commission, we now know the truth: NMSOP is a front group for the trial lawyer’s lobby, which is focused on protecting the financial interests of its members. Reforms that Think New Mexico has proposed—like capping attorney’s fees in medical malpractice lawsuits—would put more money in patients’ pockets but would reduce the amount of money going to their attorneys.
This attempt to conceal the fact that NMSOP consists entirely of trial lawyers is part of a pattern of deceptive practices, including NMSOP’s refusal to reveal who had authored the report it published to try to counter Think New Mexico’s reform proposals – a report that Searchlight documented was full of errors and mischaracterizations. Now NMSOP is publishing social media posts and a large newspaper advertisement claiming that “we don’t hide our donors,” even though that’s exactly what they did until the Ethics Commission took them to court.
The good news is that there actually is a grassroots group that recently came together to advocate for New Mexico patients. Patients Primero was started this year by several New Mexicans in the southern part of the state and is rapidly growing into a statewide network. They are supporting Think New Mexico’s policy agenda to address the health care worker shortage, including joining the interstate compacts for health care workers, repealing the state’s tax on medical services, and reforming the medical malpractice law to center the needs of patients, not attorneys.
You can follow Patients Primero on their Facebook page (they don’t have a website yet) or email them at patientsprimero@gmail.com if you’d like to learn more or get involved with their work.
For further information visit: www.thinknewmexico.org.
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