Commissioners
Who are the Commissioners and how are they appointed?
The State Ethics Commission is comprised of seven commissioners. The State Ethics Commission Act sets forth a procedure for appointing commissioners that ensures an independent commission.
The Commission’s appointment structure is unique. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Minority Floor Leader of the House, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Minority Floor Leader of the Senate each appoint one Commissioner. The four legislatively-appointed Commissioners then appoint two additional Commissioners. Finally, the Governor appoints the Commission’s Chair, who must be a retired judge. No more than three Commissioners may be members of the same political party. Except for the initial Commissioners, the Commissioners are appointed for staggered terms of four years. No Commissioner may serve more than two consecutive four-year terms.
There are also statutory requirements regarding who can serve as a Commissioner. To qualify for appointment to the Commission, a person must be a New Mexico voter; not have changed party registration in the five years preceding appointment; and not have been in the two years preceding appointment a public official, a public employee, a candidate, a lobbyist, a government contractor, or an office holder in a political party at the federal or state level, as the State Ethics Commission defines those terms.
The current Commissioners are:
Hon. William F. Lang, Chair
Appointing authority: Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
Term expires: June 30, 2026
Jeff Baker, Member
Appointing authority: Legislatively-Appointed Commissioners
Term expires: August 10, 2024
Stuart M. Bluestone, Member
Appointing authority: Speaker of the House, Brian Egolf
Initial term expires: June 30, 2023
Hon. Garrey Carruthers, Member
Appointing authority: Minority Floor Leader of the Senate, Stuart Ingle
Initial term expires: June 30, 2023
Hon. Celia Foy Castillo, Member
Appointing authority: President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Mimi Stewart
Term expires: June 30, 2025
Ronald Solimon, Member
Appointing authority: Legislatively-Appointed Commissioners
Term expires: August 10, 2024
Dr. Judy Villanueva, Member
Appointing authority: Minority Floor Leader of the House, James Townsend
Term expires: June 30, 2025
Upcoming Commission Meetings
Click Here to view upcoming State Ethics Commission Meetings.
Commission Staff
The current staff includes:
Jeremy D. Farris
Executive Director
Jeremy is the first State Ethics Commission Executive Director. He previously served as General Counsel to New Mexico’s Department of Finance and Administration and practiced law at litigation firms both in Atlanta, Georgia and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jeremy clerked for the Honorable Julia S. Gibbons on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; the Honorable Judith K. Nakamura on the New Mexico Supreme Court; and the Honorable James O. Browning on the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico. He holds a law degree from Harvard Law School, a doctorate and masters degree from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Bachelors of Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Walker Boyd
General Counsel
Walker is the first State Ethics Commission General Counsel. He previously practiced law at Peifer, Hanson and Mullins, P.A., and clerked for the Honorable James A. Parker on the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico and the Honorable J. Miles Hanisee on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. He holds a law degree from the University of New Mexico, where he served as Editor in Chief of the New Mexico Law Review, and a Bachelor’s of Arts from Vassar College.
505-554-7196
Rebecca Branch
DEPUTY General Counsel
Rebecca, a native New Mexican, serves as the State Ethics Commission’s Deputy General Counsel. She previously served as Deputy Director of Litigation and Deputy Director of Consumer Protection at the Office of the New Mexico Attorney General. She also was with the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance as Legal Counsel. Rebecca began her legal career at the Branch Law Firm. She holds a law degree from University of Denver, Sturm School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Alfred University.
505-362-7407
Jessica Randall
DEPUTY General Counsel
Jessica Randall serves as the State Ethics Commission’s Deputy General Counsel. She was previously an Assistant County Attorney for the County of Bernalillo, working on a wide variety of municipal law issues. Before that, she served as a prosecutor in the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Second Judicial Districts, where she tried dozens of cases before a jury. She holds a degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law and received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Vermont, where she majored in English and Philosophy.
505-859-9625
Caroline "KC" Manierre
SPECIAL Counsel
KC serves as special counsel to the State Ethics Commission. She previously practiced law at Rothstein Donatelli LLP, and prior to that served as an Assistant Attorney General at the Office of the New Mexico Attorney General. She holds a law degree from the University of New Mexico, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Denver.
505-362-9617
Wendy George
director of Finance and Administration
Wendy serves as the first State Ethics Commission Director of Finance and Administration. She previously served as Budget Manager to New Mexico’s Department of Finance and Administration and has over five years of governmental financial experience within the agency. She also has corporate financial and compliance experience working for Wells Fargo and Ameriprise Financial in Minneapolis, MN. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Management from Cardinal Stritch University.
505-554-7608
Suha Musa
Communications and administrative manager; Public information officer
Suha serves as the State Ethics Commission’s Communications and Administrative Manager, and is the Custodian of Public Records. A recent graduate, she has previously worked with the International Institute of Minnesota as an Immigration Services intern to assist new Americans, along with working as the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico as the Executive Director of Governmental Affairs. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in International Studies and Political Science from the University of New Mexico.
505-554-7706
History of the Commission
The landmark laws that create the State Ethics Commission
In the 2018 general election, New Mexicans voted to adopt Article V, Section 17 of the New Mexico Constitution, which established the State Ethics Commission. New Mexico became the 45th state to create an independent ethics commission.
The Commission is the product of over 40 years of work on the part of Governors, state legislators, advocacy organizations, and other New Mexicans. Gubernatorial task forces in 1992, under Governor Bruce King, and in 2006, under Governor Bill Richardson, proposed an independent ethics commission as the keystone of wider legislative reform. In 2017, the Legislature passed a joint resolution to amend the New Mexico Constitution to create an independent ethics commission. The House of Representatives unanimously passed this joint resolution (66-0), and the Senate passed it on a vote of 30-9. The legislation consequently gave the New Mexico electorate the final decision on whether to create an independent ethics commission.
In November 2018, New Mexicans voted on a ballot initiative to amend the Constitution to include a new section establishing an ethics commission. Over 75% of the voters voting on the ballot question elected to amend the Constitution to add Article V, Section 17. In the following 2019 legislative session, the Legislature unanimously enacted the enabling legislation, the “State Ethics Commission Act,” which established the Commission’s structure and powers.
Click Here to learn more about the legal foundations of the State Ethics Commission.
What the State Ethics Commission Does
Information about the Commission’s Structure and Function
The State Ethics Commission is an independent state agency created by Article V, Section 17 of the New Mexico Constitution to promote full compliance with the state laws that require our state government to be democratic, responsive to the public’s interest, and ethical. Those democracy and public accountability laws include: the Campaign Reporting Act, the Financial Disclosure Act, the Gift Act, the Lobbyist Regulation Act, the Voter Action Act, the Governmental Conduct Act, the Procurement Code, the State Ethics Commission, and Article IX, Section 14 of the New Mexico Constitution, commonly known as the “Anti-Donation Clause.”
The Commission works to achieve its goals by adjudicating ethics complaints, initiating civil enforcement actions in court, issuing advisory opinions, proposing amendments to ethics laws, drafting a model ethics code for other state agencies, and providing ethics trainings.
The Commission is bipartisan. Any action taken by the seven-member Commission requires the concurrence of two Commissioners of the largest political party in the state and two Commissioners of the second largest political party in the state. Furthermore, the State Ethics Commission Act provides that the Commission may not have more than three members of the same political party.