In the News

New Mexico Political Report: Campaign finance reform group backs Heinrich

Jul 07, 2017

By: Matthew Reichbach

A group that raised big money in the Georgia special congressional election last month is now endorsing Martin Heinrich’s U.S. Senate reelection bid.

End Citizens United supports campaign finance reform, including the titular goal of overturning the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision. The group’s president and executive director, Tiffany Muller, praised Heinrich while endorsing him.

“Senator Heinrich has consistently stepped up to the plate to root out Big Money from our political system and represent those who really matter—hard-working New Mexico families,” Muller said in a statement. “He knows that special interests are rigging the system and Americans are getting left behind, which is why he’s fighting to rip the price tag off of our democracy. We’re proud to endorse Senator Heinrich and look forward to our continued work to fix our broken campaign finance system.”

Heinrich accepted the endorsement and reiterated his call to “ban corporate spending in our elections and end this corruption of election system once and for all.”

“Corporations aren’t people,” Heinrich said. “The disastrous decision allows secret money from big corporations—even those based in other countries—to buy their way into our government, from the House of Representatives to the White House.”

The group says they have 330,000 donors nationwide and recently raised $1.4 million in small-dollar donations for Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate in the 6th Congressional District of Georgia. Ossoff lost in a special election for the seat previously held by Tom Price, the Republican who is now the Secretary of the Health and Human Services in the Donald Trump administration.

The group says 30,000 of its members are in New Mexico.

While the group’s most notable race was that special election race, it also aired ads in six U.S. Senate races last year, including in New Hampshire and Nevada, which their favored candidates won.

So far, only one Republican, businessman Mick Rich, has announced he intends to challenge Heinrich. Lt. Gov. John Sanchez is said to be considering a U.S. Senate run as well.

Read the original story at the NM Political Report.