{"id":771,"date":"2006-10-26T15:15:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-26T21:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/dendahl-beffort-share-views-rivals-skip-forum\/"},"modified":"2006-10-26T15:15:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-26T21:15:00","slug":"dendahl-beffort-share-views-rivals-skip-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/dendahl-beffort-share-views-rivals-skip-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Dendahl, Beffort share views; rivals skip forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Because Gov. Bill Richardson didn\u2019t show up to Wednesday\u2019s League of Women Voters forum in Las Cruces<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>, Republican challenger John Dendahl, like Congressional candidate Al Kissling, had the podium to himself. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish was also a no-show, so Dendahl\u2019s running mate, Sue Wilson Beffort, had the podium to herself.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dendahl pledged to be the sort of governor who works with people and builds bridges. He said he did lots of fighting as the state\u2019s Republican Party chairman because that was his role, but the governorship is different.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dendahl said he works well with others, and said 30 years in business, including three years as the head of the state\u2019s economic development department, should prove that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of style I would bring to the governor\u2019s office \u2013 not the style of the dictator,\u201d Dendahl said, making an obvious reference to Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. \u201cI am eager to serve as your governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Beffort pledged the same, and said her record in the state senate proves bipartisanship.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dendahl said he believes those coming to the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> must learn English, or they face huge disadvantages in school and work. He said the state education secretary\u2019s desire to have Spanish-speaking students in Spanish-speaking classrooms is \u201ccrap\u201d and a disservice to those students, because immersion is the best way to learn a language.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI want our children to grow up multilingual,\u201d Dendahl said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As expected, a group of hostile Democrats jeered and hissed at Dendahl as he spoke. When he said former Gov. Gary Johnson\u2019s administration wasn\u2019t plagued by the corruption Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has faced, many broke out in laughter.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Dendahl wasn\u2019t fazed in stating that his top issues are \u201crooting out the corruption that is endemic in state government\u201d and \u201cschool choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dendahl said he supports drilling on the Otero Mesa and Valle Vidal, and said environmentalist Ted Turner has proven it can be done in such an environmentally friendly way that you wouldn\u2019t be able to find the oil wells.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Beffort, who spoke briefly, said her top priorities as lieutenant governor would be education and deregulation.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In an interview with me before the forum, Dendahl spoke about ethics in state government and attacked Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He opposes laws that limit campaign gifts, saying they give incumbents an even greater advantage, in part because they can use the resources of their offices to campaign. Gov. Bill Richardson, Attorney General Patricia Madrid and Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons have all sent out mailers or done commercials with government money promoting their offices or programs during this election season.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThat and a lot of other perks are just the advantages of incumbency,\u201d Dendahl said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He also opposes the proposal to pay legislators, saying there is already an appropriate mix of citizens serving that includes business people, teachers, retirees and government employees.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He said paying legislators would attract more \u201cpolitical hacks\u201d to the positions.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dendahl said, however, that something needs to change.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a state government now that is more rotted with corruption than it has ever been, and it starts with Richardson,\u201d he said, blaming the governor\u2019s \u201cvengefulness,\u201d his \u201cconduct,\u201d and his \u201cpay-to-play\u201d system of governing.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dendahl said he laments the fact that the majority of New Mexicans recently said in an Albuquerque Journal poll<\/a> that they believe Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> is honest, despite the fact that the Journal and other newspapers commonly report on scandals tied to the governor.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Still, Dendahl said, ethics reform won\u2019t help much.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not ever going to be able to make dishonest people behave honestly,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe there are some holes that need to be closed, but every time some supposed hole is closed, some dishonest politician finds a way to rip it wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dendahl said the answer is that people need to elect honest leaders. They\u2019re wrong to believe Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is truthful, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople deserve what they get,\u201d Dendahl said. \u201cThey aren\u2019t paying attention.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because Gov. Bill Richardson didn\u2019t show up to Wednesday\u2019s League of Women Voters forum in Las Cruces, Republican challenger John Dendahl, like Congressional candidate Al Kissling, had the podium to himself. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish was also a no-show, so Dendahl\u2019s running mate, Sue Wilson Beffort, had the podium to herself. Dendahl pledged to be […]<\/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-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","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=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}