Data Explanation for New Mexico
Data Acquisition
The New Mexico Secretary of State provides access to campaign finance reports in two ways:
- Bulk CSV Downloads – Contributions, loans and expenditures from 2020 to present can be downloaded as comma-separated-value (CSV) files.
- Campaign Finance Web Interface – New Mexico began using a new system in 2020. The systems offer multiple interfaces for exploring campaign finance information.
Transparency USA downloads and imports the bulk CSV files from 2020. We do not currently import any data from older systems.
Reported Data
Transparency USA processes all CSV file types: Contributions (and loans) and Expenditures.
We have implemented a process to normalize addresses to match USPS standards for all transactions and fix common misspellings.
Candidates/Committees
These records represent candidates and committees required to submit campaign finance reports to the state. Although the state does not offer a downloadable list, Transparency USA compiles this information from transaction data.
Our system is designed to associate all transactions with an individual committee.
Contributions
These records include all contributions, including monetary and non-monetary in-kind contributions. These files also contain “returned contributions” as negative values, indicating that the contribution was made to the filer and then returned to the donor. The values should offset one another.
Transparency USA imports all of these records with their values as-is.
Expenditures
These records include all expenditures, including monetary and non-monetary in-kind expenditures.
Unlike “returned contributions,” “returned expenditures” are not provided in New Mexico bulk files, even though they are listed in their reports. This results in a discrepancy between New Mexico’s official system and Transparency USA.
Transparency USA imports all data from these files.
Loans
These records include all loans reported in the “Contributions and loans” file.
On the state website, loans are categorized as contributions. At Transparency USA, we have a separate loans tab and do not display them as contributions. Additionally, we do not track whether a loan has been repaid or forgiven.
Electronic Filing Requirement
Any candidate or committee that must file a report after the 2020 Primary Election must do so electronically.
Wishlist
We appreciate that the New Mexico website offers bulk downloads of transaction data. However, excluding returned expenditures is a mistake that would be nice to have fixed.
Party Information
Transparency USA displays the current party affiliation for active candidates and officeholders. The party information displayed may not be accurate:
- For candidates who are not actively running for or serving in state-level office
- When accessing candidate or officeholder data from previous election cycles
Party affiliation for active candidates and officeholders is provided by Ballotpedia.