A Quadruple Dose of Candidate Conversations

Consider this week’s episode of New Mexico in Focus something of a mad dash to the finish line of what has been a truly deranged election cycle. We’ve got four candidate conversations for you, including both contestants in the Congressional District 1 race: U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat running for a third term in the House, and her Republican Challenger, Steve Jones. 

You’ll also hear from Republican Sharon Clahchischilliage, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, a Democrat, to represent CD3. (We showed you our conversation with Leger Fernandez in last week’s show.)  And Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabriel Vasquez appears this week via Zoom from his home in Las Cruces. 

Vasquez’s opponent, Republican Yvette Herrell in CD2, did not respond to multiple interview requests from NMPBS. 

A brief note on debates: We chose not to offer them this cycle for several reasons, chief among them that what passes for a debate in American politics these days would be more aptly described as a joint press conference. We believe viewers will learn more about the candidates in one-on-one interviews, so that’s what we did. 

I want to thank journalist Russell Contreras for handling the Vasquez interview; that’s the mostly closely contested congressional race in New Mexico once again, and Russell did a great job of zeroing in on the issues that matter most in that district. And a special thanks to longtime NMiF Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland, who managed to get prepared for a slate of very different conversations with Jones, Stansbury and Clahchischilliage — not to mention Leger Fernandez and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich — on a tight deadline and while training up the next generation of New Mexico journalists at UNM. 

We would have been completely lost this election cycle without Gwyneth. 

Enjoy the interviews! 

– Jeff Proctor, Executive Producer