New Mexico Public Regulation Commission

Of course you can vote.

Likewise, I'll pick on Raymond Sanchez, he was Speaker of the House, a lawyer, and he would control appropriations and yet he would practice in front of the Public Regulation Commission and other agencies that were funded by the legislature and even his argument with that raging conflict of interest was that he was a volunteer legislator and he has to be able to make a living.

If we can reduce those kinds of rationales and justifications for existing conflicts of interest, if we can reduce those conflicts by just a modicum amount of money, and I think the difference between $35,000 and $68,000 is minuscule when you look at the overall budget.

If we can reduce those conflicts of interest, I think it will set us up in the coming election cycles and legislative sessions to more easily pass the kinds of transparency laws, ethics laws, internal House and Senate rules that prohibit conflicts of interest, it would be much easier and there'll be much more pressure to be brought to bear by the public because then the public can point to the fact that, look, now you're making $68,000 a year or whatever the median income is, and you have no rationale for staying with this lobbyist during the session.