Little debate between District 3 candidates

Call it the debate that wasn’t.

Both candidates for New Mexico’s U.S. House seat in the 3rd Congressional District stressed their deep roots in the state and vowed to provide a voice for New Mexicans who may not otherwise have one during a televised forum Sunday on New Mexico PBS.

While Republican Alexis Martinez Johnson showed up at KNME’s studios in Albuquerque for a live interview, Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez appeared via a videoconferencing app.

Leger Fernandez told moderator Gene Grant that the COVID-19 pandemic has led her to stay home as much as possible.

The candidates didn’t really square off. They gave separate interviews. There were no political explosions, no memorable sound bites, and no chance for back-and-forth bickering.

Johnson, formerly of Portales, fell back on a theme she has raised throughout her campaign, referring to “the forgotten New Mexican” who is no longer being represented by current officeholders.

“I have respect for the (various) cultures of New Mexico,” she told Grant. “It’s about time we started to respect different cultures and different people.”

Leger Fernandez believes Congress needs to regain some of its power over the executive branch, saying it’s time to do away with executive orders that send Americans off to war without congressional approval.

“We need to restrengthen the idea that we have checks and balances,” she said.

Johnson was critical of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public health orders. She said while she did not want to vilify the governor, “I disagree with shutting the entire state down, shutting our constitutional rights down. We have to balance safety with our constitutional rights.”

Asked about her refusal to wear a mask during a campaign appearance on Santa Fe’s Plaza, Johnson said, “On the eve of Independence Day, I felt we should not use public health orders in a capricious way.”

Johnson said she now wears a mask.

Leger Fernandez praised the governor’s quick decisions to stem the spread of the coronavirus, including the wearing of masks. “She knew it was coming. She was prepared,” she said. “The minute we got our first case, she brought out the experts and explained to us about what we were going to do.”

Both candidates presented themselves as people who can work well with others and bring divergent viewpoints together to solve problems. For the most part, they did not lob salvos, though at one point Johnson said Leger Fernandez was pushing “extreme progressive views that will hurt New Mexico.”

Both spoke of growing up in New Mexico. Johnson told stories of her grandfather, an immigrant from Mexico, digging irrigation ditches but finding a couple of dollars so she could buy pizza, rather than rely on a free lunch, at school.

“I grew up in humble beginnings,” she said.

Leger Fernandez said she learned how to make tamales both from family members and Native American friends, “a (bridging) together of two cultures.”

Each tried to take the middle ground on certain issues. Johnson, for example, said there is a way to support oil and gas drilling to raise revenue for the state while protecting the environment.

On the question of preserving or tearing down historical monuments that may be controversial to some, Leger Fernandez said a legislator can work as a broker to bring the two sides together to find common ground.

In the end, they both pitched themselves as figures of unity, not division.

“I love New Mexico,” Johnson said. “I love the United States of America. I want to see the environment be here for my four children. We have to work together to come up with solutions for the next generation.”

“I’m running from a place I love,” Leger Fernandez said. “Everything we love is under attack — our healthcare, our democracy in this beautiful place we call home. Congress is the place where I can assist and take bold and courageous action to protect what I love.”