And good evening. For those of you watching here on kob4tv, the santa fe new mexico. Com or las cruces, if youre listening across new mexico, welcome. And we welcome tonights moderating team and were delighted to have the candidates who will appear on your ballot running for the open u. S. Senate seat. They will be joining us tonight. Tonight the candidates are appearing from three locations, Mark Ronchetti is with us in the studio. And Ben Ray Lujan and bob walsh. Theres a camera for time keeping, enforce the rules and broadcast out of the location and the time keeper has been provided to mr. Ronchetti in the studios. Candidates will have one minute for opening remarks and then have 90 seconds to answer questions. Rebuttals are the moderators discretion and no more than 45 seconds and candidates will have 90 seconds for closing remarks. Moderators may disrupt candidates who exceed the agreed time limit. Well take one break halfway through the debate and candidates agree to come in without any prepared notes or scripts. Now, late last week. They drew names for order of appearance for introductions, and bob walsh will go first. You may now begin your introduction. On behalf of myself and the other candidatesings candidates and behalf of the viewers we appreciate kob to have the opportunity for a Frank Exchange of views. So they have better options, better understandings of what they are voting for. we have three of us have appeared in another forum last week and im sure you can look forward to a civilized and informative discussion. In the senate we have six years in office. We have ample time to discuss each matter carefully. And you can expect that we will be thinking about everything carefully tonight and giving you our views. Okay. Mr. Walsh, thank you. Mr. Ronchetti, you drew second and you may begin your introduction. Thanks, this is the only studio i havent gone live from. Good to get that off the old bucket list. When we thought about getting involved in the race, my wife and i thought about our daughters ava and ella. We want them to grow up in a country where they chase their dreams and working hard and thats their limitation. And in mu New York Stock Exchange now thats harder and harder. We dont educate our kid well enough and we dont have safe enough streets and dont have the Job Opportunities that so many of our families deserve. Whats happening in washington isnt working for new mexico and if we keep sending the same people back, theyre going to get the same results. Ill give my opponent credit. In congress he has risen the ladder, but the question is is this did my opponent end up as Nancy Pelosis assistant speaker because he was looking out for your best interest. That question answers itself and you deserve better and help to get your vote. Mr. Lujan you may give your opening remarks. Im Ben Ray Lujan, im proud to have been born and raised in new mexico, my dad was a carpenter and im fourth generation on farm, and learn that no job is too big or too small. Covid, ive had resource toss help you build and recover and had resourced coverage to are Quality Health care and been proud to make sure that i was leading to protect people with preexisting conditions because a cancer diagnosis should not lead to bankruptcy or losing your home. And to lead into new mexicos economy and invest in our National Labs and bases and offer infrastructure like at Navajo Nation. Theres a question whether or not to confirm Amy Coney Barrett and her confirmation excites abortion activists, roe vs wade. Do you believe that roe vs wade needs to be upheld or overturned. Were going to start with mr. Ronchetti. I think part of the answer here is litmus test. When you go with a blind question, roe versus wade right now, you dont know what the case will be, right now and as judge gorsuch said, its currently settled law. Not knowing what comes next, that will have to be determined by the justices at the time. I think one thing here ends up being a key and thats now. The Supreme Court has turned into a bitter political battle. All this is is the two sides getting together and fighting it out with each other, litmus test after litmus test and its gotten very, very ugly. If we go back to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and remember, she got 96 votes to get onto the Supreme Court. Not because 96 senators agreed with her judicial floss if i. What they agreed with though, they agreed that she was qualified, but thats no longer where we are, we start off with litmus tests and then get to the personal attacks and thats what were seeing on Amy Coney Barrett right now. Her faith is being attacked. Everything is being pulled out to go after her personally thats one of the peoples and have im running we have to take partisanship out of this process. We cant turn the courts into something thats a political battle, constantly, constantly, constantly. When you end up with fights on either side, the only people left behind are the people here in new mexico. Were going to Ben Ray Lujan could answer the question. Thanks for the important questions, i spooupport roe vs wade as the law of the land, its an important part of the confirmation hearings. Make no mystic, President Trump and Mitch Mcconnell are trying to ram through this so they can repeal the Affordable Care act. They filed a lawsuit to try to overturn the Affordable Care acts. The facts and here is the reality. The day after the u. S. Supreme court would reveal the Affordable Care act, all of your protections for those of you that have cancer, diabetes, those are called preexisting conditions, all of those protectioning would go away and under the Affordable Care act would be repealed and thats a tragedy. The other thing thats important, you saw the polling across america for people across new mexico and across the United States. They want Mitch Mcconnell and Senate Republicans to have the same urgency in coming together with a covid deal to provide the relief for the American People bch they want to look at this. And be able to find a deal and get it across the finish line. Lets go to mr. Bob walsh for the same question. The basis of the decision on roe vs wade was the right of privacy. Theres an absolute right of privacy with a patient and their health care workers. And no Health Care Agreement can be made illegal unless that right to privacy is violated. So i have every confidence to any qualified Supreme Court nominee will uphold roe vs wade. And as far as the Affordable Care act, thats been law. The federal government was never given authority over health care. When i was young, i was taught in my civics class that health care was an example of the 10th amendment that a power not given to congress was reserved for the states. So libertarians believe that we should have a free market in health care, that everyone should be able to choose a level of insurance they want, the doctors they want, and the treatments they want. And the very existence of a health and Human Services department is ridiculous because it does not provide health. What it does is takes our money, keeps some of it and returns the rest to hospitals and states with rules. Okay. There was no opportunity there for rebuttal. With that well go to my comoderator. Thank you. Millions of americans continue to need help during this covid19 pandemic. So if youre crafting a relief palm package. What are your top two to be added into the legislation and also, what would you refuse to include. Were going to start this question with representative lujan. Its not just two priorities important for relief for the American People. Covid19 has hit every family across new mexico and across america, over 210,000 people have died, many here at home. Thats why its been important, every step of the way to put people first, to make sure there was support for direct payments for the American People and there should be another round for people across new mexico. Its 1200. Its more important for those people who lost their jobs. There needs to be more investments in Small Businesses and ppp. How about those that didnt qualify before . They need to be included. And the banks and Farm Credit Bureau to be included for the smallest businesses in our community. School needs to be open and infusion of support for every School District across the country it help them as well. Our hospitals need help of the theres more support needed for testing, and theres more support needed for the delivery of ppe because President Trump failed to provide a National Plan in that response. And lastly, look, there needs to be support for people across the country and thats why there should be inclusion of investments like infrastructure and other ideas to see what we can do to provide support to every one of our communities and investments in states like new mexico and albuquerque in every corner of our beautiful state. Representative lujan, thank you. Mr. Walsh, your turn. The response of the federal government has been atrocious. It needs to get out of the way. The food and Drug Administration is not approving treatments that are needed. This is just a continuation of the from youing administration obstructing health care for people with Rare Diseases and not able to get treatments until there has been extensive ap expensive testing approval by the fda. Similar to the c. D. C. Obje obstructed labs from developing tests. And came out with a test of its own that didnt work. As for the money, where is this money coming from . Its our money. And look at your withholding on your pay stub. Thats your money being taken to washington where theyre keeping some of it and then returning some to buy your votes. Votes. Mr. Walsh, thank you. And finally, mr. Ronchetti. Well, i think a couple of things here. First of all, we have to be able to provide help to those targeted businesses that did not receive help during the original cares act here and there are a tremendous amount of them here across new mexico. So we can definitely do that out of the chute here. Also, we need Liability Protection for businesses that are doing it safely and doing it right. We also have to start bringing manufacturing back to this state and do this country. Look, covid laid bar the fact that the chinese had a great deal of our supply chains under their goal. That has to stop and they have to come to new mexico, thats not happening, we watched two months of fighting going on between the house and senate on both side and its leaving everybody here at home out to dry and you mentioned in the question. What are the two things you wouldnt include. Well, the house has included letting violent criminals out of prison as part of a covid relief bill. That doesnt belong that. Not om that, they included tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires in california and new york. I have no idea what that is doing in a covid relief bill and congressman lujan is right in the middle of this. He could go to nancy pelosi and say, lets take this stuff out and work across the aisle. When even in a pandemic it doesnt have to be this way. I do want to give a rebuttal opportunity to representative lujan on that. Your 45 seconds. Look, Mark Ronchetti cant seem to tell the truth. Nowhere in the heroes act he just pointed to and on television. Was there language for releasing violent criminals. And he included the language included the release of other folks. Hes wrong and he continues to mislead voters in new mexico. Its important to fact check. And Mitch Mcconnell has not been at the table and the first five bills the president was signed. Mark meadows was not a part of the negotiation. He needs to leave the room. Im happy to tell you i believe that progress is being made and i look forward getting back before the election so that way well get something across the finish line. Thank you. Our next question from the editor and chief from the santa fe new mexico. There are plans to increase plutonium pit production. Do i believe that creates safety issues for new mexico and our state in general. Congressman youre up first. Our national lab in new mexico changed the world. They create opportunities for people across the state. People like my dad. My dad was an iron worker and we had a roof over our head because of his work at los alamos. And when it comes to Work Force Resources as well, partnering with the doe and colleges like new mexico college. And what takes place at los alamos helps to fund those, and in nonproliferation comes from the mig work youre asking the question about as well, phil. So look, ive been proud to support the budgets with work with los alamos and sandia laboratories and im putting in the work to make sure were driving investments here at home not only with our labs, but bases. And new mexico has three incredible laboratories, we continue it to drive science. I was happy to be on a call with senator udall and heinrich and sochi and van hollen to have the space force in new mexico. And we know how to make a difference when it comes to national security. And i often say that when something bad a happening around the world. Someone from our labs is there. And rest assured someone from our labs making sure its getting done. Our labs are a critical part of our Critical Mission and that will continue and i think we do that as well as anybody in the world here and of course that needs to be supported. Not only support that, but make sure that the channels that bring innovation out of the labs and into our communities need to be bolstered here. We have two of the very best labs in the world here in the state of new mexico and we have some avenues to help people out in that process to get jobs and to take that technology and move it to the private sector. But unfortunately we dont have enough and we need to continue to do that. If you go back to 2018 an hoe resolution 1625, he voted to cut troop pay while voting to raise his own pay. I dont understand when we listen to these answers, we hear one new mexico bent, then we hear the d. C. Bend. There was there was an ndaa and that was basically National Defense votedization that he against. That took money away. You can have both ways. You cant say you support everybody about every corner and when we look at the real hard votes you dont show the same thing. We do need to give mr. Bob walsh an opportunity to answer and then will give Ben Ray Lujan an opportunity to rebut. Lets start with boby walsh. I have spent a career working on nuclear safety. I have had, have been called in contracts from both los alamos and sending this. The greatat fear of nuclear industry, pollution comes greatly exaggerated. On the other hand, we have no need for atomic weapons. The use of atomic weapons is unthinkable. We should never contemplate using them. We should unilaterally get rid of ourur nuclear weapons. As for the great strength of both of those people are like i was getting welfare for businesses and most of those people, like me, would have preferred to have university positions but were not good enough to get them. We saw that rep lujan was raising his hand for an opportunity for rebuttal. Were going to give it to you, mr. Ben ray lujan. Thank you, chris. This is time to fact check getting number 234. First up i never voted for a pay raise for myself. Second, ive consistently voted for pay raises for the military including a 3 pay raise this year alone. With our National Labs, i been proud to beha a cochair of our National Labs caucus. Democrats and republicans working together we have been driving investments in new mexico. Even when President Trumps but you try to cut the clean up budgets for a National Labs sorry, the last thing, chris, 6 billion in infrastructure and lab and modernization was included in infrastructure package with past which would benefit new mexico in addition to this workforce programs i talkeded about or liquor. Driving Workforce Development here at home. Advances for a national lab and shame on you, mark. In fairness will give Mark Ronchetti an opportunity and i will be the last rebuttal at the novant to the question. You have been washington for 12 years. I have no doubt there are little bills you can point to and there are vote you can point to that you canre set you support this that or anything. Ive no question there isnt a single subject that you dont have in your quiver on that. But the question is do you support our troops, our labs consistently so they know they never have to worry about that support . Unfortunately its not the case. You were not always on board. When you look at these issues, all im saying is people deserve to know that their senator will never let down the labs and the basis we have here. As something senator domenici established a something i will followup on. We will stay with you for bit because this is a question