Ben Hall
District 5 Public Regulation Commission candidate Ben Hall says he will respond Thursday to a challenge from his opponent to jointly appear at 10 forums across the district this month and next month.
Democrat Bill McCamley issued the debate challenge to Hall, the Republican in the race, on Aug. 9 in an e-mail. Hall hasn’t responded since, but he said today in a telephone interview with NMPolitics.net that he will be responding Thursday. He said he will be in Las Cruces on that day for an interview with the Las Cruces Sun-News.
“He’ll have his answer Thursday,” Hall said. “I’ll put it in the newspaper.”
Hall gave no indication about how he will respond other than to say he isn’t “in a hurry” to answer McCamley’s challenge.
Bill McCamley
“I don’t march to his drum, but I will be responding to it,” Hall said.
District 5 covers most of the southern and southwestern areas of the state. McCamley challenged Hall to appear with him at forums in Alamogordo, Belen or Los Lunas, Deming, Las Cruces, Lordsburg, Reserve, Ruidoso, Silver City, Socorro and Truth or Consequences.
“…since we are both participating in this election as publicly financed candidates with limited budgets for traditional campaign strategies, the opportunity to communicate directly with possible constituents in a thoughtful, meaningful, and detailed manner should be something we should seek with open arms,” McCamley wrote in his e-mail to Hall.
“It has been a number of years since anyone has participated in a comprehensive series of debates like this would be, and hopefully it would set a precedent for candidates in other races,” he wrote.
As I’ve disclosed in the past, I’m friends with McCamley. Click here to read more about that.