Common Cause finds oil vote-contribution correlation - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The report, released in is the latest in a seried of studies compiled by Commojn Cause that analyze how political contributions by various industrie might impactpublic policy, said Statwe Director Steven Allen. “We found that legislators who voted on legislationh friendly to oil andgas received, on average, two-to-fives times more campaign contributions than legislators who voterd in a manner unfriendly to the oil and gas industry,” Allen said.
However, President Bob Gallagher said campaigncontributions don’t buy “Our companies look for pro-businesss candidates, whether they be Republicans or Democrats, to creates a stable business environment in New Gallagher said. “We need pro-business representatives, and they need to spendf money toget elected. It’s that simple. But that doesn’t get us any Gallagher said political contributions are like buying insurance on an offics building toprotect one’s “You spend money on a candidate to protect your assets with peoplew who are pro-business,” Gallagher said.
“Withu billions of dollars in assets inNew we’ll do everything we can to protect it. Wouldn’ t you?” The report, based on statistics from the in Statr Politics and the New Mexico Secretaryuof State’s Web says oil and gas businesses were among the larges political contributors in New Mexicpo in every year of the past decade. Contributions totalef $5.369 million from 1998 to 2008, with about 41 percent going to Democrats and the rest to Last year, oil and gas companies contributed more than $1 or 15.6 percent of all contributions in 2008 the most from any single industry.
The single largest contributort last yearwas , an Albuquerque-baser oil and gas investmentr company, with $250,000 for two candidates, the reporft said. was third largest with $140,000. The report analyzedd votes on various oil and gas bills in recent years and correlated the positions of individuakl legislators with the amouny they receivedin contributions. “Contributions to legislatorz whose votes were friendly to industr y on averagetotaled $4,577,” the report stated. “Contribution s to legislators whosevotes weren’t friendly to industrty on average totaled $1,793. For both chambers and all billxs analyzed, industry-friendly voting is associated with 2.
6 timeds more O&G funding than industry-unfriendly voting.” Sen. John Arthur a Deming Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance saidthe industry’s impact on New Mexico finances is the critical factotr influencing legislative decisions. “Frankly, we’rde far too dependent on oil and Smith said. “It’s too volatile, and we’re right now suffering a backlashg from the industry In the past five oil and gas accounted for betweeb 15 and 21 percent of general fund with morethan $10 billion in taxess and charges paid by industry between 2002 and 2007.
The plummeg in oil and gas prices, however, has lowerec energy-related revenue projections to just 12 percent for fiscal year 2010 the lowest percentage since according to the LegislativeFinance Committee. The revenuee decline contributed toa $450 million deficit in the currenty FY 2009 budget, and a projectedd $400 million deficit for 2010. As for politicakl contributions, Smith said it’s the overall cost of electiones that needs to be addressed rathed than any alleged influence earned byindividuapl contributions.
“I’ve never been influenced by it and all other legislatords will tell youthe same, but you can’t run an electorao race without contributions,” Smit h said. “I guess it’s the cost of elections that bothersdme most. The worstf thing in politics is havingt toraise money. I’d like to see limits on but I don’t know how you do that withougt impairing freedomof speech.
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