Corporate money trails Occupy pledge signers

SANTA FE (KRQE) - Occupy Santa Fe wants corporate money out of local, state and federal elections.

That's why the local chapter of the protest group came up with "The 99 Pledge" binding lawmakers who sign it to fight for that cause.

The pledge reads in part, "Upon next taking office, I will work with particular focus to prevent corporations from directly or indirectly expending money to influence any election in the United State of America.

"The 99 Pledge" has been signed by five Democratic state lawmakers: Sens. Eric Griego, Cisco McSorley, Gerald Ortiz y Pino, Albuquerque, Rep. Ray Begaye of Shiprock and Rep. Brian Egolf of Santa Fe.

Griego is a candidate for Congress in the June primary.

"I think any special interest money should be removed," said Griego, who has proposed a package of campaign finance reform bills during his time as a lawmaker. "If I go up to Congress  I'm going to work hard to take money out of politics."

But a KRQE News 13 investigation of campaign finance reports uncovered that prior to signing the pledge, all five lawmakers have accepted corporate contributions.

McSorley took $1,000 from Bank of America in 2008, $1,500 from Houston-based Enterprise Products in 2010, and others including $700 from Qwest, $250 from Walgreens and $250 from New Jersey-based Medco Health Solutions.

Griego's state Senate campaign received $750 from tobacco conglomerate Altria, $250 from Motorola, $250 from Qwest, $250 from GlaxoSmithKline and $300 from Union Pacific.

Ortiz y Pino took a combined $1,300 from FPL Energy and $500 from Express Scripts.

Begaye received $500 from Altria, $250 from Comcast, $250 from Chevron and $250 from United Health Group.

Egolf accepted $500 from Enterprise Products, $300 from GlaxoSmithKline, $250 from Comcast, $250 from Consolidated Solar and $200 from Qwest. However, those contributions were out of more than $100,000 Egolf received during the 2010 campaign.

Out of the five lawmakers, all but Begaye agreed to on-camera responses.

Two of the legislators told us they would not be accepting campaign contributions in the future.

"Having signed that pledge I feel consistency requires I say to the corporate donors, 'I'm sorry we're going to limit ourselves to private donation,'" said Ortiz y Pino. "If money comes in from corporate lobbyists, we will thank them for their support and send it back."

"Going forward I'm going to lead by example and stop accepting corporate contributions," said Egolf. "I'm only going to be funded from individuals and political committees, which is especially appropriate given the fact that I've introduced legislation to that effect."

Egolf introduced House Bill 114 , which would block corporations from influencing New Mexico elections.

Other lawmakers say it would put them at a severe competitive disadvantage to give up corporate donations.

"Until we change those rules, you can't ask candidates who ask for reform to say, 'OK I'm going to fund this myself and go out there and try and compete with one hand tied behind my back,'" said Griego.

"Nobody can disarm unilaterally and win in politics anymore," said McSorley.

Alan Hoffman, coordinator of "The 99 Pledge", told News 13 he doesn't see a major problem with candidates who will fight for reform receiving corporate money.

"There's no reason I want a progressive candidate to unilaterally disarm," said Hoffman. "If the law says you can use super PAC money I say use super PAC money."

Santa Fe city Councilor Patti Bushee also signed the pledge. She is running a publicly funded campaign in 2012 and cannot accept corporate donations.