{"id":4508,"date":"2009-04-29T14:26:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-29T20:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/debate-ducker-chavez-to-skip-tonights-forum\/"},"modified":"2009-04-29T14:26:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-29T20:26:00","slug":"debate-ducker-chavez-to-skip-tonights-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/debate-ducker-chavez-to-skip-tonights-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Debate ducker: Ch\u00e1vez to skip tonight’s forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This article has been updated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m big on calling out debate duckers. I\u2019ve done it before with Bill Richardson<\/a>, Steve Pearce<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n

Now, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> is using a lame excuse to ditch the first forum of the mayoral race tonight.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Independent<\/a> is reporting that Ch\u00e1vez won\u2019t attend the forum, which is hosted by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. His reason? According to NMI, \u201cthe mayor felt that participating in the forum would be inappropriate because although he has qualified for public financing, and collected thousands of signatures and donations, he has not officially announced his candidacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez has said he won\u2019t declare his candidacy until the budget process is complete. The election is in October.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez is playing the political game by using the budget process as an excuse to rest on his incumbency instead of getting out and discussing things with his challengers. That\u2019s a disservice to voters.<\/p>\n

In addition, Republican state Rep. Richard Berry<\/a> won\u2019t attend the AFSCME forum because he is out of town, according to NMI.<\/p>\n

Again, come on. Make it a priority to attend these events. I understand that AFSCME probably won\u2019t endorse the only Republican in the race, but this is an important forum. And the first. Berry should be there.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t know what his out-of-town business is, so I\u2019m not labeling Berry a debate ducker. But Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s excuse is weak, so he absolutely gets the label.<\/p>\n

The other candidates, former New Mexico Senate leader Richard Romero<\/a> and Rudy Serrano, will be in attendance. NMI will webcast and liveblog the forum. You can watch and participate by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 9 p.m.<\/p>\n

Berry\u2019s campaign manager, Dana Feldman, wrote in an e-mail that Berry \u201cis on the annual New Mexico Amigos trip.\u201d He\u2019s currently in Michigan with other state and local leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe signed up for the trip several weeks before he announced he would run,\u201d Feldman said. \u201cRJ met with Carter Bundy and other members of the AFSCME leadership last week in lieu of not being at the forum. They knew RJ would not attend.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article has been updated. I\u2019m big on calling out debate duckers. I\u2019ve done it before with Bill Richardson, Steve Pearce and others. Now, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez is using a lame excuse to ditch the first forum of the mayoral race tonight. The New Mexico Independent is reporting that Ch\u00e1vez won\u2019t attend the forum, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508","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=4508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}