First debate heats up in final minutes

The debate was recorded Wednesday and will air tonight at 7 on KOAT-TV

The five candidates seeking the Republican nomination for governor stuck to their talking points and didn’t make any major mistakes during their first televised debate, which will air Friday night on KOAT-TV.

The GOP hopefuls, some of whom have gone on the attack leading up to the June 7 primary election, were civil and even complimentary at times during the hourlong debate.

But in the final minutes, the gloves came off when they were given the opportunity to ask another candidate a question.

The debate was taped Wednesday and will be televised by KOAT at 7 p.m. Friday. The

New Mexican obtained a copy of the recording ahead of its airing.

State Rep. Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences, the first to ask a question, kicked off the drama by asking her biggest rival in the race — former longtime TV weatherman Mark Ronchetti — about a remark he made about former President Donald Trump at a climate symposium.

“Why did you say that you left the Republican Party over the ‘orange one’?” she asked. “You did say that. I know you’ve back-stepped those [words]. Were you being dishonest or disingenuous to a roomful of climate change activists or now to the Republican conservatives that are choosing the next … leader of our party?”

Ronchetti was recorded during a 2019 symposium, saying to laughter from the audience, “I’m a Christian conservative who used to be a Republican until the orange one. I’m afraid that that

has taken a part of my soul, and that’s not coming back.”

At the debate, Ronchetti said he was making a joke to a group of students at the University of New Mexico.

“If we get to a point where we don’t talk to anybody that we disagree with … I think that’s the problem right now with politicians in this state,” he said. “And unfortunately, Representative Dow, you fall right into that category, which is you grab a little thing and you try to make political hay out of something when people in this state are absolutely suffering.”

Ronchetti said New Mexicans care about issues, such as fuel prices, inflation and crime.

Jay Block, a Sandoval County commissioner, also posed a question to Ronchetti, triggering a fiery response.

Block started his question by accusing Ronchetti of having “steep ties to politics” after the former TV personality had previously said it was “critical” not to.

Block said Ronchetti has “steep ties to politics with your consultant, Mr. Jay McCleskey,” outlining complaints and allegations against the man who helped former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez win her race in 2008.

“You have said you would never ever bash Republicans,” Block said. “But you also have said you don’t have a deep knowledge of the issues facing New Mexicans and your only issue is the weather.”

Candidates were limited to 30-second questions, prompting KOAT anchor Doug Fernandez

to interrupt and ask Ronchetti if he wanted to reply to “what he has asked so far.”

“Did he ask something?” Ronchetti quipped. “I’m trying to figure out exactly what it is.”

The lack of a specific question didn’t stop Ronchetti from responding to Block.

“Here’s what I say, and you know this to be true,” he said before revealing Block had called McCleskey and tried to hire him to work on his campaign.

“All this political garbage, it’s enough,” Ronchetti said. “Nobody cares. Jay, people cannot afford to buy groceries. They cannot afford to fill their tank with gas, and you sit here and you talk about these inside baseball, ridiculous issues, and this is why your campaign has not gone anywhere.”

The infighting among the Republican gubernatorial candidates prompted a question from Greg Zanetti, a financial advisor, to Ethel Maharg, an anti-abortion activist who is a former mayor of the village of Cuba. Zanetti and Maharg has largely stayed out of the fray on the campaign trail.

“You’ve watched what’s happened during this campaign, all the negative advertising,” Zanetti said. “I’d like to know if you think that all of this division, all of this friction, does anything to advance our state, to make our state better or if it actually works against us.”

“I think it’s foolish,” Maharg said, adding Republicans would have to unite behind one candidate after the primary.

“I think that it is wrong for us to be fighting like this,” she added. “It is time for us to come together as a state and a nation … and it’s not going to help with all this acting like we’re 3-yearold children.”