Pearce, Teague Square Off On Debate

The candidates strove to set their own tone during the opening moments of the debate.

“I stood up to my party. I voted against the Obama budget, I voted against the Pelosi health care bill and I stopped those secret raises that Congressman Pearce was taking,” said Teague.

“‘What in the world is going on with our economy?’ I hear that repeated frequently. Our government is killing our jobs through over taxation and over regulations,” said Pearce.

It was a debate that included long answers tackling issues like the economy, border safety, and Social Security.

“Social Security is an absolute must, we have to save it. Most of our seniors have invested our lives living there. Now what do we do to save it?” said Pearce.

He suggested creating jobs to pay Social Security forward.

Teague promised never to raid the money to pay for other problems.

“As long as I’m the congressman, I’m gonna see to it that your Social Security is there just like when they held it out of your check, and I’m not going to do like the congressman wants to and put it into the stock market,” Teague said.

When the question turned to the overall tone of their campaigns and the attack ads, both went on the attack.

“When we saw the tone of the campaign was much like the tone of the debate, then we shifted our focus and said if we’re going to talk about character, then we’ll talk about character,” said Pearce.

“Those are the things that upset me most about these ads; the untruths that are just flat-out lies,” Teague responded.

Things got heated when the candidates had the chance to ask each other questions.

Pearce claimed Teague had no way to fund education and asked, “What is your plan to fund New Mexico education if your cap and trade plan works and oil and gas production is stopped? ”

Harry Teague responded by saying, “Congressman Pearce seems to be obsessed with my vote on the American Clean Energy and Security act. He is using a lot of discredited numbers to say the effect that it will have.”

Pearce probed deeper on funding, asking Teague to name $50 billion of specific spending cuts.

“We can make those cuts by looking for waste, fraud and abuse,” said Teague

Then Teague dealt a blow of his own, claiming Pearce voted in support of legalizing drugs when he was a U.S. representative. Teague then asked Pearce if he still supports legalizing drugs.

“Harry, your comments are almost laughable,” responded Pearce. “For you to say that somehow I support legalization of drugs is just factually challenged.”

Teague also asked about money Pearce took from a congressman who made jokes about rape and asked if he’d give the money back. Pearce said no, and that Teague shouldn’t be pointing fingers because Teague’s company was sued for sexual harassment.

“I took money from a guy who made inappropriate comments 20 years ago. Your company from 2008 has significant questions to answer,” Pearce said.

Both candidates maintained the importance of sticking to the issues.
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