On Friday night, Republican GOP nominee Mark Ronchetti and Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appeared on KOB 4 for the first gubernatorial debate between the two in the tight race rated a “toss-up.” This has been rated as one of the best GOP gubernatorial pickup opportunities across the country. The debate was moderated by Tessa Mentus and Matt Grubbs.
Ronchetti went straight for the jugular in his opening statement, saying, “This governor has been letting out violent criminals.” He said, “If you think the system is broken, she is the head of the system.”
Regarding education, Ronchetti said, “If you think the education system is broken, this governor is the head of that system.”
“The fact is her 30 years of government experience has her right where we are.”
Lujan Grisham, in her opening statement, said, “We’ve actually come a long way in four years,” adding, “progress is not promised.”
She then, of course, mentioned her favorite topic — abortion. She falsely claimed, “My opponent wants to ban abortion,” despite Ronchetti backing only a 15-week ban.
Regarding crime, Lujan Grisham blamed national rises in crime. She said, “Crime is on the rise nationally. It’s no secret it’s a problem right here in New Mexico.”
Ronchetti said, “Over the past two years, she’s released over 700” violent criminals.
She said in response, “All words for someone who has never been to a legislative session.” then She claimed Ronchetti had never heard of “bail reform” before running for governor.
Ronchetti said, “She’s made it easier to be a criminal than a cop.”
Abortion was the next topic of discussion.
Ronchetti said, “My opinion on this and my beliefs on this have never changed: I’m pro-life.” He added, “We need to end late-term abortion in this state.”
Lujan Grisham said, “Abortions later in pregnancy are extreme medical emergencies.”
“It’s very clear in this particular conversation,” Ronchetti said, “the governor was okay when we brought pay raises to the Legislature to the voters.”
Lujan Grisham shot back, claiming it was “outrageous” Ronchetti wanted a state constitutional amendment on abortion.
Ronchetti responded, “When she shut down schools, did you have a voice in that? No.” He continued, “When she went and released violent criminals back onto the streets, did you have a voice in that? No.”
On the topic of inflation, Lujan Grisham claimed, “Inflation isn’t something a governor can control.” She also touted piecemeal tax cuts passed in this year’s legislative session (election year).
During the budget discussion, Ronchetti said, “We need to invest in small businesses in New Mexico. They are getting crushed,” saying he supports a tax cut, citing the 40% killed under the Lujan Grisham regime during the pandemic.
“You are out of touch with the people of your own state,” Ronchetti told the governor.
Trying to defend her failed education record, especially during the pandemic, Lujan Grisham claimed, “My opponent wants to pretend that there wasn’t a deadly global pandemic,”
Speaking about the New Mexico Child, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD), Ronchetti said he would “have a separate unit” to oversee the department. He also spoke of the Governor’s “cover-up” with the Department. “We can [fix the department] if we don’t engage in cover-ups.”
Lujan Grisham said she takes every case at CYFD “personally” and claimed it was false that he referenced a cover-up, despite one happening at CYFD under her watch.
“I know you take it personally, and I have no doubt that you do. I just don’t think you take responsibility,” Ronchetti responded.
On the topic of homelessness, Ronchetti said, “New Mexico cannot be allowed to be the country’s campground.” He backed a statewide ban on tent cities and said we need to stop the problem at its source — the border.
Lujan Grisham said that “housing, mental illness, and drug addiction” lead to homelessness. She then claimed at the next legislative session, she would look at a ban on pan handling.
On the water issue, Mark Ronchetti said, “there is nothing more important than water in the state of New Mexico.”
“My opponent doesn’t believe in climate change,” said Lujan Grisham, appearing to dodge the question. She also said, “He doesn’t support the Inflation Reduction Act,” a bill that increased inflation and added to the national debt.
She touted her anti-gas policies, saying oil and gas is “not allowed to use fresh water anymore” thanks to her leftist legislation.
Ronchetti said in his closing statement, “We have to support change” to make a difference in New Mexico.
Lujan Grisham said in her closing statement, “I think New Mexicans want an experienced, proven leader.” She touted her socialist education and pre-K programs and, of course, mentioned abortion. She said she wants to ensure “access to reproductive access (abortion) is not fettered.”
The debate had a clear winner: Republican Mark Ronchetti, who had a detailed plan on turning the state around while also focusing on kitchen table issues. Lujan Grisham appeared very defensive and hell-bent on swerving many topics to that of abortion while blaming national politics for her failures in office.
I think if they had invited bedoine she would have blown them both out of the water. The news channels were chicken s—s for not letting begonia participate in the debate
It’s way beyond chicken s—s. KOB was either working for the moneyed elites who are backing both/either Grisham and Ronchetti or else it’s election meddling or maybe it’s just straight up racism. Either way, it’s not the America first way of fairness and equal treatment. But, hey NM, let’s keep voting for the elites’ picks, no?
I believe it’s working for Elites.
Lujan Grisham won this debate, and it wasn’t even close. Unlike Ronchetti she was armed with the facts and wasn’t trying to win the debate by being hateful and throwing out mean spirited cheap shot answers. Seeing Lujan stand up for the party’s values made me proud to vote Democrat. New Mexico is not a HATEFUL state, we need a leader who represents the peoples attitudes and tonight Lujan won our family’s vote!!
Really she won?? Her facial expressions tell the story, she was completely guilt ridden! Learn to spot a looser! Words are cheap ! How’s MLGs crime ridden, homeless tent city’s working out for your family? Oh and fentanyl pouring thru the open borders, you people are beyond help
Not beyond help – Ronchetti is certainly the help we need. Ms. Remmington’s thinking that our governor ‘needs to rep people’s attitudes’ is way off — Grisham cares nothing about the people of NM & our >> values<< and that's not okay. My family's voting for Ronchetti. May God help him win.
Why do you want to redistribute wealth Jennifer?
Your party’s “values” – infanticide, last in the nation in education, first in the nation in property crime/car theft, raging poverty and homelessness, drug use, suicides…yes, your hero does indeed represent the “values” of your party. Your ignorance is breathtaking.
You see. That’s the problem with NewMexico. Insanity! You keep voting the same way expecting different results. Not going to happen. Michelle Grishem is a complete and utter failure. She a progressive. Progressive defined in the dictionary means communist. Look it up yourself. Yah she is pleased and her elites while everyone else is suffering. Why can’t NewMexicans see that socialism only benefits the elites. Period. Gas food utilities rent interest rates and above all children’s education. Pumping billions into woke and pedophilia into children’s classroom instead of making sure our children are safe protected w r ll fed and educated so they too can have the same if not better opportunities than you or I ever did. You are gravely mistaken if you think that’s what the plan for anyone let alone children under this socialist cabinet. Wake up and do your homework. This is cplete insanity and if you have children or grandchildren well then you are setting them up for failure and despair and unimaginable difficulties If you continue to be vote these types of people socialist progressives into office. Open your eyes and wipe the bs off of your vision and think of them. And abortion. God have mercy on us all because he here’s the cries of the unborn. We will all be held accountable! Please do your homework. Or we will loose our freedoms our constitution and our country. God help us.
Nice Miss America speech.
So we weren’t unnecessarily closed down longer than most states in the union crushing small businesses and making billions of dollars for Walmart and Amazon is that what you’re saying?
The drug cartels aren’t taking over our Southern border and the governor is lying and saying that the border is secure is that what you’re saying?
Stupid or obtuse. Neither is acceptable.
Go sit in the corner and put on the cap.
Maybe she said what people wanted to hear but we are all siuffering from her heavy handed policies. Her green policies are right in line with those in California and the misnamed Inflation Reducing bill that passed in DC are all attempts to make people dependent on the government.
America first? I think you mean Make America Great Again, AKA Ultra MAGA, you know the ” domestic terrorists “
Domestic terrorists?
Domestic terrorists vote Democrat and allow drug cartels to sell fentanyl in pressure in the new era of Ultraviolence due to Mexican drug cartels on our streets unfettered.
Unfortunately her being in the race just makes it more difficult to elect an electable candidate. She has NO chance of being elected…
You are correct…. A vote for Bedonie may make a personal statement in the mind of someone who votes for her, but it is otherwise a wasted vote on someone who cannot win. It has nothing to do with her ideas or qualifications – it’s just reality.
Wishful thinking.
We are last in everything except crime . I’m just saying it’s a time for change
We haven’t we been last? For as long as I can remember, we have always been last n education.
If you were honest you would be talking about how we were actually starting to rise up under Gary Johnson and the trend continued under Martinez. Now we’ve Fallen all the way back to the bottom once again.
The young questionable Corruption of The Roundhouse and it’s 500 year history of nepotism is hard to overcome.
Conservatives need to stick together or we will be stuck with evil MLG once again. We cannot split our votes. New Mexico is suffering and MLG and far left democraps are to blame. Fellow New Mexicans ask yourself, do you really want to continue to be number one at being the worst at everything forever? If you are then vote democrap or split the vote just like democraps want you to.
Interesting video
https://frankspeech.com/video/new-mexico-election-fraud-moment-truth-summit?fbclid=IwAR3dEyOs4kjDJI2eveBFJ5xj9yBP4lTQ6D1XO_dO-EL1M9qPf2h3_j4oHcY
You can listen to your conscience or you can listen to your fear. There’s a real reason Bedonie wasn’t invited to this debate. She would have put both candidates for the uniparty to shame. Keep pushing the fear the elites want you to live under. It’s done NM so much good so far, no? No.
Neil, she wasn’t invited because she would only serve as a distraction, from the serious issues New Mexico is experiencing under the MLG regime ! , you democrats are all about distraction at every turn, you pray on uninformed, naive voters it’s the only way you’ll win , the majority of democrats in this state can’t read much less comprehend what’s going on with their sick political party!!
Do we need a boy who just happens to do the weather report or used to what credentials does he have to be the governor of the state no one ever even heard of him until he decided to be a weatherman he has got this all twisted and bagged up they can use all that and a bag of chips go back to the weather Ron and leave dealing with the country to Michelle she’s done it she’s been doing it even with all the flack if you get elected governor I hope you go through what she goes through
Oh poor poor MLG, she suffers so much ! At the grocery stores and at the gas pump , she can barely afford firewood for her wood stove !and what about the nearly 100 percent natural gas bill increase! How will she survive on a fixed income!
SHE’S A PATHETIC, CORRUPT CAREER POLITICIAN!
Is this just all for optics? Because I need to know how it’s even possible that after taking an oath to support our Constitution, and then violating our 1st and 2nd Amendments, after being called out for having ties with China, after a failed attempt of a terrorist training camp being constructed in our state under her watch, after her gross deliberate negligence during the scam-demic, throw in the 2020 election fraud, and the list of protected names of those pedophiles who frequented Epstein’s Zorror Ranch ….Grisham should have been removed from her ivory tower long ago let alone disqualified from running for re-election.
We are really living in an upside down world where committing treason obviously bears no consequences.
Too bad these topics will never make the debates because I sure would love to see low IQ Globalist Puppet Grisham squirm.
Oh and BTW…
There are 41,038 crime cases in this state.
7861 sealed indictments
33, 177 unsealed indictments
Will they ever see the light of day?
Hope this link works:
https://bad-boys.us/?map=all/map/sd/state/total/total2/total3
You are so right there. If we had been watching what is going on, the wicked witch of the north, MLG would have been taken out of office a long time ago.
Exactly…. 150% AAA RIGHT… Don’t forget her theft of Taxpayer dollars used to buy her luxuries with our money….!
Ronchetti “Dale gas”
Who would win in a debate with a Dominion Voting machine?
Look at who is sitting in the White House right now and WAKE UP!!!
RIGHT!!!
Check eBay. You may be able to buy a Dominion Voting Machine. A Dominion Voting machine from Michigan showed up on eBay recently.
Do democrats fund the campaigns of third-party candidates to split conservative votes?
I would not be surprised. Any vote for a third party is a guaranteed vote for the dems.
Very true!
The answer is no. You can look up her donations on the SoS website and track her contributions. Her money is coming from mostly in-state, small donations. Rinochetti and MLG have many more high dollar, suspicious looking contributions. They’ve raked in millions, while she about $120,000. We’re at this point due to the bad actors at the RPNM.
Current politics is way beyond that now. Now we have a uniparty that selects which candidate will take office and both that candidate and a controlled opposition candidate (who will seem to run a closely contested race but who will quietly concede before all the votes are counted) will be fully funded. Every other candidate, no matter how much better they really are, will be accused of all manner of improprieties just to make them look like the bad guy.
The bad part about NM is the fact that the television stations and the ones on the internet usually show ANTI-republican ads. For a month or so now, all i have seen are ads that show Ronchetti loooking like an evil person, and MLG as the best person available. I thought there was supposed to be fairness in advertising. Until last week, i haven’t seen any for the GOP or Independents. Only for the liberal socialist democrats.
After four years as governor of a failed state, Grisham demonstrated that the only thing she is good at is spinning the facts — that NM is at the bottom of a half-dozen lists of shame, including the education rankings. Grisham used obfuscation and governmentese jargon and even attempted to blame the governor who left office four years ago, Susana Martinez.
John, I’m really disappointed in you for this nonsense. Please don’t tell me you’re caving to the RINOs in Pearce’s camp. Rinochetti looked downright scared and wild-eyed, especially in the first half. His body language was tense, he moved constantly, throwing his hands up, self-correcting as a means to look down at his notes over and over again. He delivered a slew of non-answers that betrayed his lack of knowledge and experience, even seeming to agree with her at times. This is the result of being a teleprompter reader all his life… he just doesn’t have the conviction to pull it off. He even changed his stand on abortion YET again, probably due to blow-back from the pro-life advocates by offering a constitutional change — which he alone can’t do and he knows it. It won’t happen, but he can pretend he did something. It’s cowardly. He didn’t come across as being confident and capable. Let’s see if he moves the needle….I suspect not.
Wrong Sandra.
MLG was scared and she showed it.
I don’t know what debate you watched. MLG looked frustrated and defensive the whole time. We’ve all seen enough of what she’s done to NM. Ronchetti had answers last night. MLG just had excuses. SOS, different year. What she’s doing is OBVIOUSLY not working. Time for a change…
Lol – she can flash that shiny silver jewelry though, boy!! …Wearing that stuff CERTAINLY makes her “New Mexican” and therefore New Mexicans must vote for her!!
— She really thinks we’re that stupid?
Yeah , we’re that stupid !!!, stupid is as stupid does! Hang on NEW MEXICO !
CALIFORNIA STYLE GOVERNMENT! Get ready extreme homelessness! Poverty as a standard for Mexico!
ADIOS !!! MF ‘s haha
Any person who’s a Republican is far better than any Democrap in our State…. You want the Socialist type of Gov..? Go live in Venezuela….!
Sandra , I don’t believe you watched the same debate that I did , replay it again, MLG got clobbered ! The weather man out smarted MLG at every turn , New Mexico is in danger! Worst in everything ! Wake up the democrats are destroying your state !
I will only stand with actual conservatives. Rinochetti is not that. But if the RPNM gets back to their conservative roots and starts treating people fairly, they’ll have my support again.
I met Ms. Bedoine during her campaign and found her delightful, intelligent and committed to her principles. Those running for Governor on the Republican ticket also had a common denominator for moving New Mexico forward. Voter’s we must throw every bit of time and energy and donations in getting our candidates elected. We can lament about MLG until the cows come home on how she lacks integrity, character, responsibility, honor in her role as Governor. Yes, she’s a big mess. We need those in offices who speak for the people and not career politicians.
A vote for ms. Bedoine would only keep MLG in power, you know that ! That is your end game ! She does not stand a chance of winning! You might as well stay home and not vote! MLG must be retired from politics,30 years has corrupted her., why is the killing is defenseless babies in the womb so important to the democrats ! They all need to get voted out ! Vote for republicans
Bedtime should have been invited to take part in this debate…this needs to be open to all three. Let us hear her views.
She may have ok views !
BUT ,BEDTIME WiLL NOT WIN. !!!!!!
STOP THE DISTRACTION FROM EVIL MLG !!!!!!!
Scripted for the two ‘selected’ ones. Meaningless without the third candidate, Karen Bedonie.
The only people telling you to vote for bedonie are democrat operatives or well meaning naive voters. Bedonie cannot win, and will only symphony votes from an electable candidate. If bedonie cared about changing the state, she would endorse ronchetti and work to help build Republican infrastructure here. As it stands she’s more a liability. Grow up people.
Siphon votes* not symphony.
During her tenure as governor, MLG has purposefully undertaken steps to wreck the economy, hinder education and impoverish New Mexicans – it’s all intentional – no one is that much of an incompetent baffoon.
New Mexicans – come together to vote MLG out. Maybe your first choice to be the GOP pick was not Ronchetti – but don’t cut off your nose to spite your face – don’t vote in anger/haste.
I hope Karen Bedonie will have a prominent place in NM conservative politics – she’s smart, articulate, & tough – but right now, conservatives should unite.
MLG is a complete disaster! And so is our local news channels, all these news organizations are owned and operated by the deep state , it is nearly impossible to find conservative views and values by the media in the state of New Mexico, New Mexico was a state of high moral values due to its CHRISTIAN FAITH BELIEFS And now it’s intentionally be taken down down by ATHEISTS, piece by Piece , if you can’t see , this you have fallen pray to the DEVIL , wake up NEW MEXICO!!!!!! , it’s your last chance, save yourself from MLG! Vote for REPUBLICANS! It’s all you have left! AND YES BIDEN was INSTALLED!
God help us all!
10 Million dollars in two years tax dollars for medicaid to kill babies- MLG will answer to God for each baby murdered.
If she gets installed again due to voter fraud I am moving home to Ohio , Vote the Bible.
For someone preaching the Bible, you sure are judgemental!
We have been on the control of one party for many many years and look where we are at. To do something over and over and expecting a change is called insanity. We need a change.
If you want a sneering, sniveling teenager with no grasp of the facts, vote for Ronchetti. He has no idea how the government works and zero skills with which to work within the system.
First of SJ, he’s not a teenager, he’s a father and a husband with children , I realize that you leftists hate the biblical definition of a family, perhaps you’d be happier in North Korea or china.
How the current New Mexico government system has been working IS THE PROBLEM. It has been out of control under jack booted MLG.
Please do not vote for for MLG (Moronic Leftest Grifter) it’s time for us to retire her!! Like we’re going to do with Speaker Pelosi (Our Insider Stock Trader in Chief). Hope her and her crooked husband Paulin get indicted!!
Vote Republican / Save our country!!
Had we gotten a clear view of the two candidates, Lujan-Grisham, seated, would have appeared as Ronchetti’s short little secretary taking notes for him.
Well said Nancy, I am voting Red ❤❤❤. We need change MLG has had time to change this state for the better and hasn’t.
MLG SUPPORTS ABORTION:
Only the Demonic the lost and confused choose Abortion. The unborn child is not merely a mass of tissue. It is living, human, innocent.
Proverbs: 6:17 Hands that shed innocent blood. Abortion is, therefore the shedding of innocent human blood. God will hold accountable those who engage in, assist, or endorse this Vile/ practice.
Thank God for the woman that has chosen “Life” for the unborn child.
Michelle Lujan Grisham is wrong to promote Abortion.
Wake up people Vote Red ❤❤❤