National debate no substitute in Senate race

Since last November, both Tom Udall and Steve Pearce have been racing toward this November, and the election for the Senate seat left vacant by Pete Domenici’s retirement.

They’ve disagreed on many issues as they’ve met people across New Mexico, and they’re set to disagree on “Meet the Press.”

The two candidates and NBC haven’t agreed which episode of the Sunday morning talk show they’ll fill, but there’s already a debate forming —  whether it counts toward the three statewide debates on which the candidates had agreed.

Udall’s campaign thinks it does, as spokesperson Marissa Padilla said, “We’re pleased to have this be one of our three statewide televised debates.”

Pearce’s campaign is saying not so fast.

“When we agreed to three televised debates, our impression was that we would have three televised debates in New Mexico,” Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips said. “Certainly, ‘Meet the Press’ is a completely different animal.”

Udall’s been up 25-30 points in most polls on this race, so he’s got an upper hand on Pearce on a lot of issues. This is not one of them.

“Meet the Press” is a one-hour show, taped in advance in separate segments. Throw in commercials, and you’ve got about 42 minutes worth of debate time. That’s not a lot of debate time anyway, and I highly doubt NBC’s going to give the entire hour to one single Senate race (especially when national polling site fivethirtyeight.com says 19 other Senate races are closer in the polls).

More likely, the candidates are going to get 12-15 minutes to debate on the issues. Once host Tom Brokaw is done asking about national issues to satisfy the non-New Mexico audience, will there be any time left for the candidates to talk about issues that affect eastern New Mexico?

I doubt Brokaw, or any national anchor, is preparing questions about the Ute Water Project, Cannon Air Force Base’s mission transition or why 15 Curry and Roosevelt County schools failed to meet No Child Left Behind benchmarks.

Representative government only works if those being represented are well-informed, and there’s only so much a voter can learn when they only see candidates deliver talking points in front of hand-picked audiences.

That’s why Barack Obama could stand to agree to at least a few town hall meetings with John McCain, so an undecided voter gets to form an opinion from being in the same room with each candidate.

That’s why McCain could stand to agree to a Lincoln-Douglas style debate with Obama, so they’re creating the debate instead of campaign surrogates.

(That’s also why networks owe their viewers more than prolonged discussions on campaign gaffes masquerading as debates. There have been 47  debates from Democratic and Republican presidential candidates so far, so the networks should have enough experience by now to get it right. But that’s an argument for another day.)

None of this is said to scare Pearce or Udall away from “Meet the Press.” By all means, the candidates should be enthusiastic for this chance to give New Mexico exposure. But regardless of who’s leading in the polls, New Mexico voters lose if a few minutes on “Meet the Press” is a substitute for a statewide debate, rather than a complement.

Kevin Wilson is a columnist for Freedom New Mexico. He can be reached at 763-3431, ext. 313, or by e-mail:
kevin_wilson@link.freedom.com