{"id":51970,"date":"2020-08-24T19:19:43","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T01:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-senate-hopefuls-in-new-mexico-feuding-over-debate-lineup\/"},"modified":"2020-08-25T01:19:43","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T01:19:43","slug":"u-s-senate-hopefuls-in-new-mexico-feuding-over-debate-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/u-s-senate-hopefuls-in-new-mexico-feuding-over-debate-lineup\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Senate hopefuls in New Mexico feuding over debate lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rep.
Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M., speaks as House Democrats hold a news conference in 2019 in Washington. Luj\u00e1n and Republican Mark Ronchetti\u2019s campaigns are feuding over the number of TV debates in the race for the U.S. Senate, agreeing to two so far.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The campaigns recently announced the candidates will take part in a debate sponsored by KOAT-TV and the Albuquerque Journal. Ronchetti\u2019s campaign said Monday he will join Luj\u00e1n and participate in another hosted by PBS-affiliate KNME-TV.<\/p>\n

But Ronchetti has accepted offers for other debates sponsored by Albuquerque-area outlets KOB-TV and KRQE-TV \u2013 something Luj\u00e1n has shunned so far.<\/p>\n

Ronchetti is a former meteorologist for KRQE-TV.<\/p>\n

Ronchetti immediately accused Luj\u00e1n of \u201chiding\u201d from voters by not accepting offers from the other outlets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the voters of New Mexico to hear what I stand for. Ben Ray thinks he is entitled to this Senate seat and doesn\u2019t want to explain a voting record that is out of touch with New Mexico,\u201d Ronchetti said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n\u2019s campaign downplayed the other networks and said the KNME-TV debate will reach more voters statewide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to maximize the potential that all New Mexicans could tune into the debates, our campaign chose to participate in a statewide debate on free, public broadcasting and in another where a local affiliate partnered with the Albuquerque Journal, the state\u2019s largest newspaper,\u201d said Luj\u00e1n\u2019s campaign manager, Travis Brimm.<\/p>\n

Ronchetti had originally called KNME-TV a \u201cliberal front-group.\u201d The station is non-partisan and its weekly \u201cNew Mexico in Focus\u201d shows regularly host Republican guests. Both are seeking to replace Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, who is retiring.<\/p>\n

Recent Senate races in the state have seen multiple television debates.<\/p>\n

University of New Mexico political science professor Lonna Atkeson said it\u2019s \u201cridiculous\u201d that voters may have limited chances to compare candidates outside of television and social media ads. Voters could use more debates since the pandemic has halted traditional rallies and meet-and-greet events. she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBen should take part in the KOB and KRQE debates. They have big viewerships,\u201d Atkeson said.<\/p>\n

Atkeson said Luj\u00e1n\u2019s position on debates could backfire since he rarely had to face scrutiny in his U.S. House races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M., speaks as House Democrats hold a news conference in 2019 in Washington. Luj\u00e1n and Republican Mark Ronchetti\u2019s campaigns are feuding over the number of TV debates in the race for the U.S. Senate, agreeing to two so far.Associated Press file The campaigns recently announced the candidates will take part in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51970"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}