Saturday, April 7, 2012

New Mexico State Government: D-minus for Ethics & Integrity

Another unfortunate story regarding the lack of ethics in our state government:  Recently, the State Integrity Investigation, a national independent organization of journalists graded each state government's likelihood of corruption. Not surprisingly, New Mexico's state government received a D-minus -- only half a step above complete failure.

The grades are given by evaluating multiple factors, including legislative accountability, lobbying disclosure, and ethics enforcement. You can see the full rankings here http://www.stateintegrity.org/new_mexico .
  
With the corruption and lack of ethics we've been reading about in the papers for far too long, it's sad, but not surprising that our state received such a low grade. Career politicians like Santa Fe Mayor Coss, with their unethical track records and lack of transparency, hurt our community and the future of our children. We deserve better. We deserve a state government that will earn an A, not a D-minus.

If we keep voting for the same career politicians over and over again, we will keep getting the same results. We can do better. Now’s our time to elect real people who will represent the best interests of our community over their personal agendas and greed.