Darren White vs. Martin Heinrich Congressional District One Debate

Last evening was the first congressional district one debate and we could see that Heinrich brought his “adult A game” to the debate. If Darren White hopes to stand a chance against Heinrich he will need to do a much better job than last evening’s debate.

While Martin Heinrich presented a Congressional like demeanor and was able to site his experience on the city council his opponent acted like he had never been in front of a camera before in his life. You would think that he would have said something earlier about his microphone problems rather than pretending that nothing was going on with it. Did Darren forget that he once worked in the field of broadcasting? He made reference to a local individual calling him an eco-terrorist but forgot that retiring Senator Pete Domenici had also worked with the same individual. I seriously doubt that anyone would call Senator Pete Domenici an eco-terrorist by association. I think that a lot of individuals who respect Senator Domenici would be offend by that remark from Sheriff White.

Darren White had the added problem of convincing viewers that after being President Bush’s led supporter here in Bernalillo County that he could break with the unflavored President. While Darren White is not an unintelligent person he does lack the foresight and experience of his opponent Martin Heinrich. One does have to wonder why Darren White has not until last evening brought up the fact that he calls himself a disabled veteran? How can a disabled veteran be a sheriff and exactly how is he disabled? Where has been his support of other disabled veterans in the past? Maybe like John McCain he only supports his buddies when it helps him to advance his political career. Another interesting issue is where is Darren White’s family? Martin Heinrich’s wife and children have been a big part of his campaign and clearly his life which will provide the future congressman a strong grounding to deal with being a freshman congressman; his wife stated early on that she and the children were very serious supporters of Martin’s. Sheriff White’s family has not been seen or talked about in public leaving one to wonder exactly what is the relationship between the pair?

More debates between the two should be of great interest to the voting public in Bernalillo County. Otherwise we are left with the view of an experienced city leader running against a local sheriff who acts more like Barney Fife.