{"id":21024,"date":"2010-08-30T07:45:17","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T13:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=21024"},"modified":"2010-08-30T07:45:23","modified_gmt":"2010-08-30T13:45:23","slug":"teague-pearce-spar-over-debate-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/08\/teague-pearce-spar-over-debate-schedule\/","title":{"rendered":"Teague, Pearce spar over debate schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Steve Pearce, left, and Harry Teague (Photos by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate Steve Pearce<\/a> has an answer to his debate challenge: Democrat Harry Teague<\/a> won\u2019t agree to 10<\/a> \u2013 or 18<\/a> \u2013 town-hall style debates across the district, but he will agree to two TV debates and is proposing his own series of radio debates on specific issues.<\/p>\n

Teague released a letter to Pearce on Friday indicating that he has agreed to debate Pearce on Oct. 24 in Albuquerque and Oct. 27 in Las Cruces. Both would be televised debates, and Teague said he hoped Pearce would join him at them \u201cbecause these debates give Southern New Mexicans the opportunity to learn more about the differences between us on the issues and about the very different approaches we have taken to representing this district.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teague also proposed debates on local radio stations \u201cto reach both the bigger towns and smaller rural communities in this district.\u201d He proposed at least three \u2013 to be held Sept. 20 in Las Cruces, Sept. 27 in Alamogordo and Oct. 4 in Artesia. The Las Cruces debate would focus on border security. The Alamogordo debate would focus on veterans. The Artesia debate would focus on congressional reform.<\/p>\n

Teague\u2019s letter made no mention of Pearce\u2019s challenge to debate him at least 10 times in counties across the district in town-hall style meetings \u2013 and in front of voters. Pearce seized on the fact that Teague instead wants issue-specific radio debates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is typical Harry Teague \u2013\u00a0afraid to speak to voters in an open forum.\u00a0He proposes debates on narrow subjects\u00a0so his staff can write answers,\u201d Pearce Campaign Manager Jason Heffley said. \u201cWe accept\u00a0his offer but we refuse to restrict the questions to only pre-approved\u00a0topics written by Teague\u2019s staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026We agree to debate on the three dates Teague selected. However, we insist on two-hour formats and a wide range of topics,\u201d Heffley said. He also suggested that the Oct. 4 debate should be held in Santa Fe and the state oil and gas association\u2019s meeting instead of in Artesia.<\/p>\n

Heffley also complained about Teague agreeing to TV debates that will be held just before Election Day and after many have already voted early and absentee.<\/p>\n

\u201cPearce and Teague\u00a0should\u00a0debate next week,\u201d he said. \u201cPearce has proposed\u00a0debates to be held after\u00a0Teague\u2019s meetings\u00a0in Carlsbad, Las Cruces and Los Lunas.\u00a0They will both be there and it will not interfere with\u00a0his congressional schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabello responded by saying that Teague \u201chas initially agreed to\u00a0five\u00a0debates\u00a0\u2013 two televised debates that will cover a wide range of issues, and a first round of three radio debates which will be in-depth discussions on some of the most important issues to New Mexicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy won\u2019t Congressman Pearce agree to debate these issues?\u201d he asked. \u201cDoes he think that veterans, border security and congressional reform aren\u2019t important enough to merit their own in-depth debate, or is Congressman Pearce just trying to duck any and all in-depth discussions of his record?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry will debate Congressman Pearce, but he has no plans to abandon his job or his constituents, Gabello said. \u201cCongressman Pearce has the luxury of campaigning full time, but the concerns of the people of the 2nd\u00a0District and the responsibilities of being their representative don\u2019t go away because there is an election. Harry is going to stay focused on his job and on working hard to help the people of Southern New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican 2nd Congressional District candidate Steve Pearce has an answer to his debate challenge: Democrat Harry Teague won\u2019t agree to 10 \u2013 or 18 \u2013 town-hall style debates across the district, but he will agree to two TV debates and is proposing his own series of radio debates on specific issues.<\/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-21024","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\/21024","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=21024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}