BY DAN BOYD / JOURNAL CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF
Copyright © 2020 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE – The New Mexico Ethics Commission on Friday filed a lawsuit aimed at forcing a group that spent more than $130,000 on political advertisements in hotly-contested Democratic legislative primary election races to disclose its donors.
The lawsuit – the first of its kind filed by the Ethics Commission since its creation this year – could be a test case for a law amended in 2019 that requires more “dark money” disclosure for election-related expenditures.
Jeremy Farris, the Ethics Commission’s executive director, said Friday the lawsuit was filed in state District Court after the Council for a Competitive New Mexico refused to comply with a demand letter sent by the commission a day earlier.
“I think this is dark money … and that’s exactly what’s required to be disclosed under the Campaign Reporting Act,” Farris told the Journal.
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