We’ve seen Democrats this election season doing everything they can to avoid debating. Perhaps one of the silliest excuses was given by Katie Hobbs in the gubernatorial race in Arizona. Duck it long enough and then claim her schedule was pretty much “set” so she couldn’t do it, then say she was “focused” on her race. If you’re focused on your race, you don’t duck debates — you want people to see you.
But it was easy to see why Democrats might be ducking debates. Because the Democrats who have been debating have been getting their heads handed to them left and right. Blake Masters just decimated Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) in their debate, tying him to Joe Biden and pointing out how he had done nothing about the border. J.D. Vance trounced Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) when Ryan tried to take him out with an abortion remark. Then Ryan completely imploded comparing his “service” in high school wearing a football jersey to Vance being a Marine, and Vance finished him off with possibly the best line of the debate about his “failure of accomplishment.”
But I have to say that the bomb dropped by the Republican on Democrat in the New Mexico gubernatorial race is one that you may never have seen in a political debate before.
Mark Ronchetti, the Republican candidate, took apart the Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s failed policies. That you often see. But then, he really dropped the hammer on her.
Ronchetti said, “You grabbed a male staffer’s crotch — a gay male — then you said ‘Is there anything down there?’ You then paid him $150,000, and then you made him shut up about it.” Ronchetti said she not only had the gall to victimize James Hallinan, but then to revictimize him, and try to paint herself as the victim. “This is the thing people cannot stand,” he said, taking her apart over other things where she said one thing and did the other such as during the pandemic. “You are a hypocrite, Governor,” Ronchetti declared.
Ouch. It’s going to be hard for her campaign to get around that. Her response was, “You have spent your entire campaign attacking my character and my integrity.” Ya think? Maybe this is one reason why?
Ronchetti has an ad on it too.
The media had reported the story a few days before and a journalist followed up on Ronchetti’s comments with a question to Lujan Grisham. All Grisham would say was that they had provided disclosure on the issue. But even the Sante Fe New Mexican called that into question noting wryly that she “didn’t exactly shine a light on the sexual harassment settlement.” The payout to Hallinan was listed as legal expenses in her campaign finance report and was made to a law firm, not directly to Hallinan. She also refused to divulge the details of the $72,556 she paid out to a law firm on the matter. She was doing all she could to cover up the incident.
Democrats have no shame and no principles at all with Lujan Grisham as a candidate. She’s ahead at this point, but I’m thinking this body blow is going to put a significant dent in the lead.