First NM Governor's Debate Goes to Denish for Content and Style (With Video)

Entire debate: KNME's online video coverage

Here's my first take on tonight's gubernatorial debate. More to come. You can check out the video above to see for yourself and/or read the transcript of the live blog conducted tonight by the New Mexico Independent and the Santa Fe New Mexican. Thanks to all who helped provide the live coverage.

At tonight's debate with Dem Diane Denish on education hosted by APS, Susana Martinez, the GOP candidate for governor, did what she's become known for doing -- she recited canned talking points instead of answering the question at hand, stayed in attack mode and kept pretending that Denish has been governor for the last eight years. Instead of directing her comments to the audience, she kept looking at Denish accusingly, as if interrogating a witness at a prosecution or lecturing an employee. At times, Susana's voice took on a melodramatic and whiney tone -- almost tearful -- as she stared at Denish and talked about things like the immorality of every child not getting a quality education. (Remember Heather Wilson whining and crying about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl in 2004?)

No kidding, Susana. That's why Democrats have been trying to get the system out of the doldrums for eight years, after GOP Governor Gary Johnson made cutting taxes and everything else in state goverment a personal vendetta. Mr. Veto Power put New Mexico in a big hole in almost every department. Catch up isn't easy, especially when New Mexico and the nation is experiencing the worst economic crisis of my lifetime thanks to the deregulation/pyramid scheme party thrown by Bush and the Republicans in Congress for eight years. We don't need another Johnson in the form of Martinez at the helm here.

Denish spent most of her time directing her comments to the audience in the small, rather intimate, El Dorado performing arts center. At one point she turned to the crowd and said something along the lines of, "you're all teachers and educated folks so I know you're not going to fall for Martinez's rhetorical tricks." Precisely.

Denish: Best Zinger
Later in the debate, Denish fired off the best zinger of the night, in my opinion, when she challenged Martinez's professed passion about making sure schools get properly funded. "Susana Martinez didn't care enough about education in September 2003 to go to the polls and vote," said Denish. That tidbit of information about Susana's lack of participation in a vital special election on education solicited much moaning and groaning from the audience. Better late than never in caring about school funding, eh Susana? (See fact sheet distributed by the DPNM on Martinez's failure to vote.)

Martinez Dishonest About Her Support For Vouchers
One of the main wrangling points between the candidates centered on public schools vs. private school vouchers. Denish kept blasting Martinez on her plan to have school funding "follow the child" and to institute a voucher-type program that would given tax breaks to individuals and businesses that give scholarships to take kids out of public school and send them to private schools. Despite previously saying publicly that she supports vouchers, Martinez now claims her plan is really not about vouchers, and that it wouldn't take money away from public education. She never does explain where the taxpayer money would come from to pay for the tax breaks.

Denish characterized Susana's proposal as just another voucher plan -- but with a middle man, so to speak. The tax dollars would pass through the hands of those making donations for "scholarships" before paying for private school. Voucher programs provide taxpayer money directly to the private schools when a child opts to go there. Bottom line: the funding still comes from taxpayer dollars and goes to educate kids in private schools instead of going to support and improve public schools.

“For months, Susana Martinez told Republican audiences that she supports a voucher plan that takes money out of our public schools and gives it to wealthy private schools, but tonight she had trouble defending her position. That’s because taking money from our public schools is simply indefensible,” Denish said in a statement released after tonight's debate. “Unable to defend her position on school vouchers, Martinez resorted to national Republican talking points and tried to sell it off as her own plan. New Mexico families won’t be fooled.”

“As someone who has worked with New Mexico teachers and parents for years, I know what it’s going to take to strengthen and transform our public schools," Denish continued. "We must fully fund our public schools and give our teachers the support they deserve and need. We must expand early childhood education opportunities, hold schools accountable for performance, and make sure our high schools give students a clear pathway to either the workforce, college or a career in the military. But one thing is clear: we will not strengthen our public schools by taking money out and giving it to private schools, as Susana Martinez has proposed doing time and time again.”

Susana's response to this charge? "You know Diane, you can say it over and over and over again, and it's not gonna make it true." Except that it IS true, as you can see in this video of an appearance by Martinez a few short months ago in front of Republican insiders where she said outright that she supports vouchers:

Martinez's Lack of Relevant Experience
During the debate, Denish also called Martinez out on her lack of experience in fighting for education dollars -- referring to her own experience with pushing for increases for early childhood education. She suggested Martinez doesn't know what she's talking about when she says she will increase funding in the classroom by cutting funds for other education costs. She criticized Martinez for never making clear exactly what she would cut -- funds for school janitors, mental health counselors, hard-working administrative assistants or something else.

At one point, Martinez ignored a question on education to talk instead about the state plane and how Denish had abused her access to it. It went over like a lead balloon with the crowd of educators and school personnel, and for two good reasons. First off, it was clear that the attendees wanted to hear more detail about Martinez's positions -- not some off-topic accusation. Secondly, over the past seven plus years, since 2003, Denish has used only $170,000 worth of airtime on the state plane in carrying out her outreach duties around the state as lieutenant governor. Is there any large state where government officials don't use planes to get around when it makes sense? Much ado about nothing, but since Martinez seems to have zero in-depth knowledge about how the state education system works, it's a ready fallback talking point.

Denish's Suggestions
The Denish campaign released a statement after the debate underlining several major points Diane made tonight about her strategy to strengthen and transform New Mexico schools:

• Making sure that every child has access to quality early-childhood education opportunities to help close the achievement gap at the start of school. A majority of positive learning habits and brain development occurs before children turn 5. This is also the best time to engage parents in their children’s education. Data from the first years of Pre-K in New Mexico show children have made clear improvements: Such as increases in literacy and math, over the first three years alone pre-k kids scored 24% higher in early literacy. [National Institute for Early Education Research Rutgers University, The New Mexico PreK Evaluation, 2008]

• More accountability for school districts, including putting independent audits on the Sunshine Portal to ensure that the majority of dollars are being spent in the classroom.

• Raising the bar through more stringent academic standards such as the Diploma of Excellence, which provides more math, science and career-oriented learning.

• Redesigning the final years of high school. Too often, the last years of high school are when kids check out. Diane believes the last years of high school should be focused on allowing kids to earn college credit, gain real-world workforce or gain volunteer experience, and obtain the vital skills necessary for the next steps in life. New Mexico has recently seen some improvement in graduation rates -- from 60 percent in 2008 to 66 percent in 2009.

I certainly hope that New Mexico voters get to see more of Susana Martinez in similar debate settings. When pushed to go beyond her memorized talking points, Martinez comes up short, and it's obvious. In contrast, Denish comes off as down to earth and into the nitty gritty of what it takes to make government work for the people. Let's see if Martinez has the guts to go head to head with Denish in a series of debates, not just one or two. New Mexicans really need to see her in action to get a clear picture of just how uninformed and negative she is on the debate podium.