By FRED NATHAN JR.
Executive Director
Think New Mexico
Recently the New Mexico Ethics Commission sued a secretive, dark money group calling itself New Mexico Safety Over Profits (NMSOP) for violating state laws that require the disclosure of the source of funds used to influence legislation.
The lawsuit alleges that NMSOP spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertisements opposing medical malpractice reforms designed to center the needs of patients and bring down malpractice premiums for doctors, which are about twice as high in New Mexico as in our surrounding states.
Earlier this year, an investigative journalist at Searchlight New Mexico unearthed unethical and misleading behavior by NMSOP and revealed deep ties between NMSOP and the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, whose members feel threatened by the proposed reforms.
As the Ethics Commission put it: “New Mexicans have a right to know who is funding lobbying campaigns.” NMSOP is adamant about keeping its funding sources secret, telling Searchlight: “We certainly will not be disclosing our donors.”
To try to distract from their legal troubles, this dark money group is now attacking Think New Mexico because we drafted and worked to pass legislation (Senate Bill 176) reforming the state’s medical malpractice law.
Feliz Rael, a board member of NMSOP – and, she neglected to mention, the President-elect of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association – recently authored an opinion piece in the Santa Fe New Mexican (link) accusing Think New Mexico of working on behalf of corporations because we received grants from two local independent foundations, Anchorum and Con Alma.
These foundations, which received seed money from the sale of health care companies, fund a diverse array of nonprofits across the state that are working to improve health equity and access to care. Think New Mexico is proud to be among their many grantees. We are also proud to have a strict policy protecting the independence of our research and our policy recommendations from input by any of our funders.
Think New Mexico has always been completely transparent about the sources of our financial support. We publish an annual report that lists all of our donors in alphabetical order. You can find all of our annual reports on our website. (In 2024, 60% of our funding came from more than 1,200 individual supporters.)
Over the past 26 years, Think New Mexico has successfully taken on powerful interests to advance reforms that benefit New Mexicans. We fought the hospital association to win passage of a law creating a health care price transparency website; we battled the title insurance industry to bring down closing costs for homebuyers; we overcame the powerful predatory lending industry to reduce the maximum interest rate on small loans from 175% to 36%.
Now we are working to address the health care worker shortage that is making it so hard for New Mexicans to find a doctor or get in to see their doctor if they have one.
The trial lawyers who make their money from malpractice litigation are lashing out because the tide is turning. New Mexicans are hearing from their doctors that the medical malpractice environment is driving them out of the state or into early retirement. Think New Mexico’s medical malpractice reform bill picked up 24 bipartisan cosponsors. Governor Lujan Grisham called for medical malpractice reform in her State of the State address and her post-session news conference.
You can join the growing movement by visiting www.thinknewmexico.org, where you can download our full report, read about our proposed reforms, and contact your elected officials about them. (While you’re there, you can also read the Ethics Commission lawsuit and the Searchlight articles about NMSOP.)