The Santa Fe New Mexican and Project Vote Smart have something in common: Republican U.S. Senate primary candidates Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson didn’t feel it was worth their time to fill out their questionnaires.

The two weren’t alone in failing PVS’ "Political Courage Test," as first noted by the Swing State of Mind blog a couple of weeks back. The two were joined in their failure by Tom Udall, the sole Democrat in the U.S. Senate race, and a vast majority of federal and state candidates. Only 21 percent of federal candidates and 11 percent of state candidates filled out the survey.

As Julia Goldberg of the Santa Fe Reporter and the Swing State of Mind blog noted, the survey (pdf) is more detailed than your average questionnaire. It is four pages deep and has multiple questions on issues from abortion to education and every issue in between.

The test, according to the PVS Web site, "is a key component of Project Vote Smart’s Voter Self-Defense system."

Major leaders of the media, major parties and Project Vote Smart repetitiously ask candidates one central question: "Are you willing to tell citizens your positions on the issues you will most likely face on their behalf?" The Political Courage Test is administered to all candidates for presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative offices.

Goldberg noted in her post: "While refusing to answer questions doesn’t reflect that well on the candidates, it also doesn’t reflect that well on Project Vote Smart, in my opinion. My experience (limited though it may be) is that candidates respond when they feel they can’t afford to ignore you and when not doing so could hurt them."

This isn’t the case with the Santa Fe New Mexican.

"We can’t accuse the two Republican Senate candidates of trying to dodge The New Mexican," Steve Terrell wrote in Wednesday’s edition of the paper. "Both Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce took time out of their busy schedules for interviews with me. And I appreciate that."

However, Terrell went on to say, "for reasons that still baffle me" the two candidates failed to fill out the 10-question questionnaires from Santa Fe’s largest paper.

The 3rd Congressional District candidates, all six of them, managed to fill out the questionnaires with varying degrees of depth.

Udall was not asked to participate in the poll because he has no primary opposition.

Back in April, both Wilson and Pearce filled out questionnaires for the Albuquerque Journal. The Journal has the largest circulation of any paper in New Mexico.

According to Terrell, it is unclear why the candidates failed to respond to the New Mexican survey.

A spokeswoman for Wilson said her candidate didn’t like the yes-or-no format. Some of the congressional candidates also expressed misgivings about that, though all agreed to submit.

A spokesman for Pearce contacted my Capitol bureau colleague, Kate Nash, asking about our deadline. But we never received his answers.

At least Terrell was able to interview both candidates.

Two alt-weeklies, the Santa Fe Reporter and the Albuquerque-based Weekly Alibi, were unable to talk to Wilson. The Reporter cited Wilson’s failure to speak to the paper in their endorsement of Pearce.

"Wilson did not grant us an interview for that piece or for this edition," the endorsement said, referring to a previous interview by the paper, "And while we would find it difficult to agree with any of Pearce’s positions (anti-gay-marriage, pro-drilling, etc.), we think his willingness to talk to those whose opinions differ is an important quality for a public servant."

Wilson did not sit down with the Alibi either.

"She didn’t participate in an endorsement interview, and you’re not going to get much more from her campaign website," the Alibi wrote. "Under ‘Issues’ she talks about national security, border security, fiscal responsibility and her ability to win rigorous races."

The Alibi therefore chose to not endorse either candidate. The Alibi endorsed Democrat Patricia Madrid over Wilson in the 2004 general election for the 1st Congressional District seat and Democrat Richard Romero over Wilson in the 2004 general election for the same seat. Wilson did not sit down with the Alibi in 2004, and it is not clear if she did so in 2006.