Pearce, Cervantes Shine at Stockmen's Candidate. Lujan Grisham Doesn't Come

A non-event was the big news at the governor candidate forum yesterday at the New Mexico Stockmen’s convention in Albuquerque.
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham didn’t show. I did not hear an explanation of MLG’s absence. There was just the empty chair on the podium with the four male candidates.
The Democrats are Jeff Apodaca (www.apo18.com) of Albuquerque, Peter DeBenedittis (http://peterd4gov.com) of Santa Fe, Sen. Joseph Cervantes (joe4nm.com) of Las Cruces. The Republican is Rep. Steve Pearce (http://peopleforpearce.com) of Hobbs.
One reaction was that MLG has blown off the rural areas, that her strength will be in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
Attending the stockmen’s gathering was worth it for candidates. It offered the only opportunity to get the stockmen in one place before the November 6, 2018 general election.
The other news wasn’t exactly a surprise. Cervantes and Pearce are clearly the choice among the five candidates in terms of experience, demeanor, and ideas.
Apodaca is sincere enough. But he styles himself an outsider which is ridiculous given that his dad, Jerry Apodaca, was governor, means that Jeff grew up around politics. Poppa Jerry later ran for the U.S. Senate, but lost in the primary. Apodaca’s other problem is that what seems his main issue—he kept repeating it—is taking the state’s permanent fund money—$26 billion, he said—and spending in the state to solve all our problems. Other than that it was platitudes and banality.
DeBenedittis offered a first for me; a panel moderator shuting off a topic. DeBenedittis was attacking Pearce for taking the big money that elections cost these days including $1 million from livestock interests. The moderator interrupted with, “We don’t need to go there, sir.”
DeBenedittis, the real outsider, makes MLG look somewhat moderate by comparison. And he is arrogant about it. Maybe he will draw a few of the far left voters from MLG.
Cervantes is the third generation of a family of farmers from southern Dona Ana County. He talked of running a business—meeting a payroll—while serving in the legislature. “I have been a reformer in Santa Fe,” he said, citing instances. Protecting water is a first priority, as is expanding and growing new markets. “We need to make the public understand how important agriculture is,” he said.
Pearce grew up on a very small family farm south of Hobbs. He talked of four principles, three of which are faith, family and freedom. (I didn’t get the fourth one.)
On health care, Pearce clearly knows the policy details, a good thing since he is in Washington, D.C., dealing with those details. He mentioned value-added production such as small refineries and restarting the timber business. He said that if we got rid of fracking, a desire of DeBenedittis, the state would suffer a substantial economic because oil and gas produced through fracking technology is a large part of the state’s production.