On the spot
Teens quiz hopefuls for Congress at Girls Inc. forum
The forum started with a lighthearted question: If you could have any superpower, what would it be, and why? John Blair, the first to answer, said he would like to fly.
Other participants of Tuesday night’s forum — the first chance for candidates in Northern New Mexico’s crowded 3rd Congressional District race to set themselves apart onstage — gave campaign-loaded answers: State Rep. Joseph Sanchez said he would want to make people get along, and Sandoval County Treasurer Laura Montoya said she wished she could teleport back in time to learn from past leaders’ mistakes.
District Attorney Marco Serna fought back tears as he told hundreds of people packed into the James A.
Little Theater that his 1-month-old son is in the hospital fighting an illness. He said he’d want the power to heal the sick.
The event’s hosts, 10 teenage girls on the Leadership Council of Girls Inc. of Santa Fe, then began a series of harder-hitting questions on the environment, reproductive rights, small businesses and local farms, a teacher shortage and gun control — issues especially critical to youth who will inherit the effects of decisions made under new leadership.
“We are your future,” 16-yearold Indira Tho-Biaz Wilder told the eight Democratic candidates who participated Tuesday night. “It is your responsibility to listen critically and closely, and then to take action.”
Joining Sanchez, Montoya, Serna and Blair, a former deputy secretary of state, on the forum stage were Santa Fe attorney Teresa Leger Fernandez, former CIA agent Valerie Plame, Taos attorney Kyle Tisdel and former Navajo Nation presidential candidate Dineh Benally.
Democrat Gavin Kaiser and the four GOP candidates in the race — Alexis Johnson, Audra Lee Brown, Karen Bedonie and Ben Bateman — did not attend.
When asked about abortion, most of the candidates at the forum said they believe women should have the right to choose what they do with their bodies.
Benally did not state a clear position but called any pregnancy “a gift from God.” Sanchez, meanwhile, firmly stated he opposes late-term abortion.
On the topic of gun control — “I think there’s a national psychosis around this issue,” Plame quipped — several candidates, including Plame, said they would support an assault weapon ban. Many cited the mass shootings at U.S. schools in recent years.
“It’s offensive to me as someone who went to Santa Fe High that students today have to worry about this sort of thing,” Blair said, “and that this year at Santa Fe Public Schools, before anyone learned chemistry or biology or English, they were taught how to run, hide or fight from potential gunman. That is unacceptable.”
Tisdel, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center whose campaign largely centers on combating climate change, expressed grave concern about the environment.
“This is the last election that we have to be able to make the meaningful type of change to preserve a livable planet for future generations,” he said.
Amid the candidates’ thoughtful answers, they also fired off a few wisecracks: Blair, the only openly gay candidate in the group, asked, “Why me?” when he was selected first to answer a question from the audience about how to protect LGBT students; Serna at first joked that his superpower would be to “immediately impeach Trump”; and during a discussion on single-use plastic and protecting the environment, Fernandez held her reusable water bottle up to Blair’s, drawing cheers.
Toward the night’s end, each candidate was given one final question: If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to your teenage self ?
Some candidates referred to the Girls Inc. motto, which is to inspire “all girls to be strong, smart and bold.”
“Those words sum up what you are doing, and what you need to do to go ahead,” Plame said.
During final remarks, Blair directly addressed the teens from Girls Inc. “The change that is gonna come — that has to come — is gonna come from you, and women like you,” he said. “You are the change that’s gonna happen.”