Tourist season might be over, but downtown Santa Fe could seem pretty crowded this week, as hundreds of legislators from 13 Western states come to Santa Fe for the annual conference of the Council of State Governments-West.

CSG-West staffer Mary Lou Cooper — who lives in Santa Fe — said Friday that she's expecting about 500 people, including legislators, state government staffers, guests and sponsors to be attending the conference, which kicks off today with a cocktail reception in the state Capitol Rotunda and ends Wednesday.

(In addition to the visiting Western legislators, Santa Fe this week also is hosting the annual meeting of the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association, which is expected to attract 900 people from several states, according to NMOGA president Bob Gallagher.)

Santa Fe was chosen partly because a New Mexico lawmaker, state Rep. Jose Campos, D-Santa Rosa, is the chairman of the organization this year. Campos now is running for lieutenant governor.

Among the luminaries at the conference are pollster John Zogby, who is speaking Tuesday morning about his latest book, The Way We'll Be, which deals with shifting American attitudes; and CNN political analyst David Gergen, who has been an aide to presidents including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and who will speak about presidential leadership at a Wednesday lunch. Both Zogby and Gergen will host book-signings after their speeches.

Neither speaker came cheap. Gergen is getting $33,000 for his talk, plus travel expenses, while Zogby, who has done several events for CSG West, is being paid $6,500 plus travel expenses. Cheryl Duvauchelle, director of finance and development for CSG West, said both fees were negotiated.

The total amount being spent on speakers is $65,500, Duvauchelle said. It is coming out of a $100,000 appropriation from the state Legislature, said John Yaeger of the Legislative Council Service. The rest of the appropriation is earmarked for travel expenses, Yaeger said.

There are several panel discussions and workshops dedicated to issues with which Western legislatures deal. Cooper said the economy and energy are some of the major topics. Todd Buchholz, a former economic adviser for President George H.W. Bush, will interpret the impact of the current economy on states.

The program lists one session called "Speak So They Will Listen." It features Minnesota broadcast journalist Lindsay Strand with a "hands-on session on how to deliver memorable messages and handle 'hot seat' interviews."

Another program is called "Longevity for Legislators." It's not about getting re-elected. Instead, it's about maintaining health while in office. The speaker is Dr. Zorba Paster, who co-hosts a show called On Your Health on National Public Radio.

And there's a roundtable about state film incentives, moderated by state Rep. Tomas Garcia. One of the panelists is Eric Witt, Gov. Bill Richardson's point man on the film industry.

And of course there are parties — the Capitol reception today, a "Taste of Santa Fe" party and a "Gran Final: Chair's State Dinner."

These, as well as the breakfasts, lunches and convention center fees, are paid for by sponsors who have contributed amounts between $20,000 and $25,000.

The sponsors are mainly corporations who lobby state governments. There are oil and energy companies including BP, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron; pharmaceuticals such as Astellas, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, AstraZeneca and Takeda; communication companies like Qwest, AT&T and Sprint; plus banks, railroads, tobacco and liquor companies, and developers.

While most of the sponsors are national corporations, there are some companies from New Mexico including PNM and Gas Company of New Mexico. Also there's SunCal, a California-based company that heavily lobbied the New Mexico state Legislature to create "tax increment development districts" for their proposed 55,000-acre development on Albuquerque's West Mesa. The House this year narrowly voted down a TIDDs bill backed by SunCal, but the company is expected to try again.

Besides filling hundreds of local hotel rooms, having the meeting here will save our state government some travel expenses. Last year, the state paid $53,617.83 to send 24 legislators to the CSG-West annual conference in Anchorage, Alaska.

Paula Tackett, director of the Legislative Council Service, said in an interview earlier this year that the state pays annual dues of $96,000 to CSG-West. But, she explained, that money goes for much more than conferences. The Legislature uses CSG-West for research in a variety of issues, she said.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.