CD1 Debate: Heinrich, White mix it up

ALBUQUERQUE — A few good punches were thrown but there wasn’t much blood on the mat after 1st Congressional District candidates Darren White and Martin Heinrich met Wednesday night in the first of four debates this week in Albuquerque.

White was more aggressive and definitely delivered some of the best lines of the night, but at times he sounded like a pesky little brother rather than the next congressman for New Mexico’s largest city. Heinrich was calm and composed in the face of White’s attacks and probably gave many viewers their first sense of his legislative experience, but he didn’t have the well of real-world experience that White easily draws from.

Both camps are likely to call it a victory, but undecided voters may want to sit through another one or more of the scheduled debates to make up their minds.

The debate got off to an uncomfortable start with the two candidates forced to sit side by side, rather than across from each other and on either side of KOB-TV moderators Tom Joles and Nicole Brady. Heinrich and White were at each other’s elbow rather than looking at one another, and the audience couldn’t watch one’s reaction while the other was speaking. When the debate began, White’s name initially was misspelled as “Darrin” and his microphone didn’t work.

From the beginning, Heinrich was the more staid and sober of the two, citing his legislative experience on the Albuquerque City Council and his ability to work with both sides of the aisle to pass balanced budgets and cut taxes. “Our adversaries need not be our enemies,” he intoned, repeating a line he has used often before. “Our challenge is to work with all sides.”

In contrast, White portrayed himself as the spunky, street-wise political veteran, a proud but independent Republican who has gotten along with Democrats for years. He reminded viewers that he’s a disabled veteran, a former street cop and a family man. “I know what it’s like,” he said. “I’ve been out there.”

He also was quick to undercut one of Heinrich’s principal campaign strategies — that White was a Bush administration flunkie. “Washington is broken,” White said, “and it’s not just the Bush administration, it’s Congress as well. I’ve showed I’m willing to stand up and fight for what’s right,” against Democrats and Republicans alike, he said.

If White didn’t want to be aligned with Bush, he did, however, invoke classic Republican themes. “We need to get off the backs of the middle class and out of their wallets,” he said. When asked whether there were better days ahead for the nation’s finances, White cited President Reagan and his famous line that America is a “beacon on a hill,” then added, “Maybe our light’s a little dimmer.”

On taxes, both candidates sounded like their respective presidential candidates, though neither John McCain nor Barack Obama was mentioned by name. Heinrich said his plan called for 95 percent of Americans to get a tax break; White said Heinrich would raise taxes, vowing that he never would.

The debate moderators played one of each candidate’s nastiest campaign ads and asked the other to critique. White threw a haymaker at Heinrich for the Democrat’s ad chastising White’s use of drug-raid money for cars, fences and other equipment when White was secretary of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. “Martin, that is the height of hypocrisy,” White said, adding that the city of Albuquerque, when Heinrich was council president, did the same thing.

White’s ad featuring the parents of a slain Bernalillo County deputy, in which the deputy’s mother calls Heinrich “despicable,” brought a subdued response from Heinrich. “I don’t understand the ad,” the Democrat said, adding that “a lot of people were confused by it.”

But once the bottle was opened, White wouldn’t let up. “What you said about me was disgusting,” he said about Heinrich’s ads regarding White’s lack of support by the state police.

White kept up his offensive by insinuating that Heinrich had palled around with an eco-terrorist named Dave Foreman, and asked his opponent to reveal all his associations during the time Heinrich had a consulting business.

Heinrich had one of his best retorts of the night, saying that White’s guilty-by-association approach “isn’t working for John McCain” and wasn’t working in New Mexico. He noted that Foreman had also worked with Sen. Pete Domenici. “It doesn’t make Pete Domenici an eco-terrorist,” Heinrich said.

Asked how long U.S. troops should stay in Iraq, Heinrich said as short a time as possible, and when pressed said 12 to 18 months. White never answered, but turned the question to supporting the troops, and suggested his opponent would not. Heinrich easily parried, pointing to a city council resolution he supported that specifically called for full funding of the troops.

Both candidates said they support offshore oil drilling, but White would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge while Heinrich would not. White said more domestic oil production would bring down gas prices — an idea economists scoff at — but that in the long term the United States needs more alternative and nuclear energy. Heinrich has a similar energy policy, but said he wants a more robust, Apollo-style approach.

But White said Heinrich had “made a career of supporting groups that block drilling and nuclear power,” referring to Heinrich’s short-lived career as a consultant, and said it’s hard to believe the Democrat has changed his tune. “I’ve heard more believable stories from people I’ve stopped for speeding,” White quipped.

At times, White seemed to be reading straight from the GOP playbook, saying his Democratic opponent would raise taxes, increase spending and have government take over the health care system. He constantly prefaced his comments to Heinrich by addressing him as “Martin.”

Heinrich remained calm throughout the night, much as Obama refused to rise to McCain’s barbs during the presidential elections. At one point, after being called out as a tax-and-spend liberal, Heinrich heated up and said he was “the only one at this table who has voted to cut taxes, the only one at this table who has balanced budgets. … It’s not rhetoric,” he said. “It’s a real record.”

Though Heinrich and White had faced off in August, Wednesday’s debate marked their first public battle since then. Neither made any major mistakes, a la Democratic nominee Patricia Madrid in 2006, and both stuck largely to the same talking points voters have seen in ads.

But their chance to sway undecided voters — and many still are undecided, according to recent polls — is quickly winding down, which suggests that their next three meetings could get rougher. Televised debates are tonight (7 p.m. on Channel 5) and Sunday (4 p.m. on Channel 7), with another at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at Congregation Albert, 3800 Louisiana Blvd. N.E.