I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Thursday’s night final debate between Republican Susana Martinez and Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish felt like a review of the past three-and-a-half months, wrapped up in a tidy, one-hour debate.
Discussions of corruption, the state’s budget woes, even Denish’s spouse Herb, made cameos. The two candidates tussled over how to improve education and, in what is the single largest challenge facing whoever wins the Nov. 2 election, the state’s woeful budget situation.
Everything sounded familiar. That is, except the one moment in 60 minutes of rehashed discussion that appeared to provoke unscripted drama.
It came in the first minutes of the debate, when Denish pulled out an invitation to an event on Wednesday for Martinez that she said was sponsored by “predatory lenders” as Denish called them.
“Diane Denish will end predatory lending and Susana Martinez has assured us that she will not end predatory lending,” Denish said, reading from the invitation.
“I will put a stop to predatory lending,” Denish said.
The document Denish was referring to, forwarded to The Independent by Denish’s campaign, was an e-mail from Hal Stratton, an Albuquerque Republican who served as a New Mexico state representative, attorney general and former chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. He wrote:
Gentlemen:
As you know we have a governor’s race on here in New Mexico. The Democrat, Diane Denish, is out to end consumer lending. The Republican, Susana Martinez, we are assured is not for ending or further limiting consumer lending. Fortunately, Susana is ahead and is going to win.”
The e-mail went on to invite the recipient to a reception for Martinez at the Albuquerque Country Club.
Asked to respond, Martinez didn’t, at least at first. She remarked that she believed that the private sector would produce jobs. Then, as if doing a 180 roundabout in her mind, Martinez turned to Denish, saying “We are not supposed to bring anything from outside. You brought something to the table. That wasn’t fair. That’s what I want people to know about you. You aren’t willing to follow the rules.”
Asked to respond by the anchors, Denish said, “Susana, you’re on the side of big, out-of-state corporations.”
Period.
It was a striking exchange that injected a moment of unscripted drama into an event that like many political debates felt scripted from the start.
While it is still uncertain who will win Nov. 2, what is certain is the victor will face an unenviable task of leading New Mexico through rough times — times that will test, and likely expose, the high-flying rhetoric of a hotly contested race as exactly that, rhetoric.
Despite a yawning state budget gap, both Denish and Martinez have made promises on the campaign trail that might be hard to keep given the state’s budget situation.
The anchors of KOB asked both candidates how they would work on the budget. Each gave familiar answers, but they were devoid of details.
Both Martinez and Denish have promised not to raise taxes in their first year at the same time they have promised not to cut two of the largest areas in the state budget — public education and Medicaid, the government’s low-income health insurance program.
Such statements have provoked incredulity among state lawmakers, as well as people familiar with how the budget works. More than one state lawmaker has privately called such promises the result of the “silly season” — that time of the election season when candidates say what they think they have to say to get elected.
Each gubernatorial candidate also was asked Thursday night by KOB’s anchors to name the most troublesome thing her opponent had said about her.
The question sparked a back-and-forth between Denish and Martinez that eventually touched on Denish’s spouse, Herb, New Mexico’s neighbor to the east, Texas, and out-of-state corporations and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth funder Bob Perry.
Denish started the discussions by citing ads the Martinez campaign had run saying that Herb Denish had worked as a lobbyist for out-of-state corporations involved with the Mesa del Sol development in Albuquerque.
“The reasons she runs these ads is that she doesn’t want you to know something,” Denish said of Martinez. “She is on the side on the big corporations. She wants to roll back those regulations” while “I am going to be on the side of the New Mexico families.”
Martinez meanwhile took umbrage at the Denish campaign’s ads that called her a Tejana, she said.
“The Albuquerque Journal called it insidious and race baiting,” Martinez said.
Martinez continued, “Republicans, Democrats, Tea Party Patriots, and independents have to come together to get ourselves out of the mess the Richardson-Denish administration got us in.”
Then picking up on the theme of out-of-state corporations, Martinez said that Denish’s husband had worked as a lobbyist for large out-of-state corporations himself, and that it was hypocritical for the Denish campaign to criticize large campaign contributions had gotten from out-of-state interests.
Asked to respond, Denish said Martinez had “injected Texas” into the gubernatorial race when she accepted $350,000 from Bob Perry, a Texas developer who helped fund the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004.
Perry also has contributed $7 million to American Crossroads, a political organization with ties to Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s political adviser.
“She took Texas money. She has Texas-style politics. She has Texas policy,” Denish said.
Martinez responded emphatically, “I am not beholden to anyone, very different from the Richardson-Denish administration.”
Martinez was referring to one of the constant themes of her candidacy – the conflicts of interest and corruption rife in the Richardson administration.
Then she said of Perry, “I owe him nothing. He owes me nothing. I will not make a single decision based on a contribution.”
