{"id":16853,"date":"2010-05-04T08:54:26","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T14:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=16853"},"modified":"2010-05-05T06:49:58","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T12:49:58","slug":"barela-wants-a-respectful-policy-focused-cd1-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/05\/barela-wants-a-respectful-policy-focused-cd1-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Barela wants a respectful, policy-focused CD1 race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Jon Barela<\/p><\/div>\n

Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich hopes to focus on the issues, says there\u2019s a big contrast between the two candidates, primarily on fiscal policy<\/h4>\n

Jon Barela<\/a> would prefer that the 1st Congressional District race stay respectful.<\/p>\n

The Republican candidate, who\u2019s seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich<\/a>, D-N.M., said there\u2019s lots of \u201cnon-substantive discussion\u201d in politics today, and it\u2019s not constructive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who know me pretty well know that I\u2019m going to try to do my best to remain respectful and focus on the issues,\u201d Barela said during a Friday interview in Las Cruces. \u201cI happen to respect Mr. Heinrich and his office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, New Mexico\u2019s 1st District is nearly always one of the most hotly contested House seats in the nation. Voters there are used to the national parties flooding the district with millions of dollars in negative TV ads and mailers attacking the candidate from the other party.<\/p>\n

In other words, keeping things respectful is going to be difficult, if not impossible.<\/p>\n

But Barela said it\u2019s easy to focus on the issues because there\u2019s such an obvious contrast between him and Heinrich. The Democratic congressman, Barela said, has voted \u201clockstep\u201d with Democratic leadership on issues that related to \u201cbigger government, higher taxes and more regulations on business.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cited Heinrich\u2019s votes in favor of the budget, the Obama stimulus bill, raising the debt ceiling, cap and trade and the health care reform bill as examples.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat voting record speaks for itself, where he is philosophically, and I would argue that the 1st District is not that far left. It is still a moderate district,\u201d Barela said.<\/p>\n

The votes on most of those pieces of legislation were close. Heinrich\u2019s vote has mattered, and Barela said 1st District voters should realize the race is important.<\/p>\n

A fiscal conservative<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Barela identifies himself as a fiscal conservative. Since he brought up the Obama stimulus, I asked him what he thought of the Bush bank bailout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American people lost faith in the prior administration because they didn\u2019t do what they said they were going to do in limiting explosive government,\u201d Barela said, adding that he believes that disillusioned the GOP base and led to the backlash against Republicans in the 2008 election.<\/p>\n

Barela said he expects a similar backlash against Democrats this year. He said the past two administrations have a record of \u201cpromises made, promises broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debt and deficit, Barela said, is \u201ca huge and looming issue we need to deal with.\u201d He said programs such as health care reform, \u201cwhile well-intentioned, are programs that mortgage our children\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barela said dealing with the debt and deficit starts with stopping government expansion, which is a massive task. Then the United States must start reducing the interest is pays on the national debt. Barela said the United States is approaching a point where its debt interest payments will exceed its spending on defense.<\/p>\n

There are many approaches to reducing the deficit, but Barela said the current approach \u2013 spending more money \u2013 isn\u2019t one of them. And he said there\u2019s no scenario under which he would support a tax increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilosophically I don\u2019t believe you raise taxes to raise revenue,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018No party has a monopoly on good ideas\u2019<\/h3>\n

Though fiscally conservative, Barela said he\u2019s moderate on some other issues and won\u2019t vote \u201clockstep\u201d with his party. He said his aim is to bring a thoughtful, policy-based approach to issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen necessary, I will break ranks with the party to do what\u2019s best for the state and nation,\u201d he said. \u201cI will not blindly follow any party dogma or any party leader, because no party has a monopoly on good ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for examples, Barela, who was in Las Cruces to speak at a conference of the League of United Latin American Citizens<\/a>, listed a few:<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cI do not favor the wholesale dismantling of affirmative action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Barela said he\u2019s more moderate than the national GOP on immigration, adding that he is not a \u201cround-them-up-and-toss-them-out kind of guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cI keep an open mind on how we address education issues,\u201d said the former member of the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education. He added that he currently serves on a Hispanic education task force in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

\u2018You run because you believe in something\u2019<\/h3>\n

Barela grew up in Las Cruces with parents he described as \u201cblue-collar\u201d workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t come from wealth or privilege, but I was privileged to have great parents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now Barela said he\u2019s privileged to have his party\u2019s nomination to run for Congress. He knows that running for office means working tirelessly \u2013 he used to work for former U.S. Rep. Joe Skeen<\/a>, R-N.M. \u2013 but he said he\u2019s honored to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou run because you believe in something,\u201d Barela said. \u201c\u2026 That gives you great energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which brings him back to Heinrich.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect his service. I respect the commitment it takes to fly back and forth to Washington. He has a young family,\u201d Barela said.<\/p>\n

Heinrich has flown back to Albuquerque more weekends than not in his 18 months in Congress. Barela said family activities, mowing the lawn, going to your children\u2019s sporting events is what keeps you grounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you lose family perspective, perspective in staying in touch with your family, I think you lose perspective, period,\u201d Barela said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jon Barela, the Republican challenger to U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said he hopes the race can stay focused on the issues instead of \u201cnon-substantive discussion\u201d that\u2019s not constructive. There\u2019s a big contrast between the two candidates on fiscal policy that Barela is eager to talk about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,116],"class_list":["post-16853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}