Gov. candidates launch attacks in TV debate
Confrontations focus on health care, overdose rates
The three Democratic candidates for governor cranked up the volume of their attacks on one another during a rare televised debate Sunday night.
Both businessman Jeff Apodaca and state Sen. Joseph Cervantes questioned front-runner Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham over her tenure as New Mexico’s health secretary. And she in turn questioned whether her opponents were failing to “lead by example” by not providing health insurance for their campaign staffs.
The first and probably last chance for viewers to see the candidates on television talking at any length about the issues before the June primary election, the debate’s flurry of accusations and innuendo may have left voters with more questions than answers.
Moderated by KOAT-TV and the Albuquerque Journal, the format allowed the candidates a chance to question one another.
Cervantes and Apodaca both pounced on Lujan Grisham’s time as state health secretary under former Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat.
Apodaca was perhaps most aggressive, blasting Lujan Grisham for an increase in drug overdose deaths during her tenure and for taking contributions for her congressional campaign from a political action committee linked to a pharmaceutical company.
Both campaigns tried spinning the issue with data on overdose rates from different periods of time. But the state’s own data show that drug overdoses increased year after year in New Mexico — along with the rest of the country — while Lujan Grisham was health secretary when all drugs are counted, not just prescription medications.
Cervantes asked if Lujan Grisham would release “sealed personnel records” from her time at the state.
“I think New Mexicans need to vet their next governor,” Cervantes said. “I think New Mexicans need to know the circumstances in which you served.”
The congresswoman’s campaign said all state personnel records are confidential.
And Lujan Grisham touted her time in the post working to pass a “good Samaritan” law, improve vaccination rates and setting up a program to implement the state’s Medical Cannabis Program.
Candidates also turned to the business interests of their opponents. Apodaca made an issue of a business Lujan Grisham formerly co-owned, Delta Consulting. The company runs the state’s health insurance program for patients who had been denied care elsewhere. Lujan Grisham sold her share of the company last year, leaving her campaign treasurer as the sole owner. Congressional records show she earned at most $50,000 to $100,000 a year from the firm since she took office in 2013.
Lujan Grisham said there was a “clear misunderstanding” of what the firm does, describing it as doing patient advocacy and providing coverage for people with particular medical concerns.
And in a strange back-andforth, Cervantes asked Apodaca to explain what businesses he owns. Apodaca talked about his business experience but, when pressed for details, referred Cervantes to his page on the social networking website LinkedIn.
The page lists Apodaca as president of 47 LLC — “a venture group incubating and developing new investments and businesses in New Mexico and the region.”
Referring to campaign finance reports that list how much each campaign pays its staff, Lujan Grisham questioned why neither candidate appeared to provide health insurance or pay other costs usually involved in employing workers.
“Does your campaign reflect your values and how you believe you should treat workers?” Lujan Grisham asked.
Apodaca responded that the question was a “political ploy” and “completely false.”
Asked the same question, Cervantes said his staff members, working on contracts, are not employees.
But Lujan Grisham generally shied away from the sort of jabs that her competitors have thrown in recent weeks as the first negative ad — coincidentally, targeting her — hit the airwaves.
Instead, the congresswoman said she was proud of having run a positive campaign.
Ultimately, the candidates stuck to their well-worn pitches.
Lujan Grisham touted herself as the experienced administrator and advocate who ran the state’s departments of health and aging under three governors, with support from Republicans and Democrats alike for much of that time.
Cervantes sought to contrast himself as a Southern New Mexico lawmaker who had promoted transparency in government and would give it to voters straight.
Apodaca offered himself as an outsider making a first run for public office after a career in the media industry, intent on upending the political status quo.
More early voting sites opened over the weekend for the state’s primary election; election day is June 5.