HD 75 Debate - EPCC Valle Verde

If Mary Gonzalez has an Achilles heel its consistency. Up and down performances from one day to the next and that was clearly at play during Monday's debate with Hector Enriquez.

Let me be clear about my next sentence because it will surprise some of you.

I thought Hector Enriquez gave an impressive performance.

Maybe I've been setting the bar pretty low for a few candidates, but I don't think that is the case. I think these candidates are genuinely stepping up their game.

Gonzalez has been everywhere and almost every event under the sun. She's been pushing for debates for a long time, like the smart kid in class who just can't wait to turn in their paper.

Enriquez has kept a pretty low profile until recently and after my first interview with him, I realized he didn't know anything. He was absolutely not ready for office. That was in September. Then he showed up to another forum in February and frankly, he still wasn't ready. He was better because he had a script in front of him, but he was still not ready.

I asked him in September and he was asked again in March, a very basic question about what committee he would seek to serve on. He didn't know in September, he didn't know in February.

After several months...he FINALLY answered the question. Took him long enough.

But the bottom line here is this, Enriquez looked pretty damn good.

Gonzalez wasn't bad, but she was just so-so.

Gonzalez had the chance to go on the attack and really deliver a knock-out blow to her opponent and she didn't. She didn't even attempt to, which surprised me. Even with a script, she has deeper policy knowledge that Enriquez. She was on a college campus, so she was in her environment.

She should've cleaned his clock. She didn't.

Again, not a bad performance, but just nothing to write home about. Enriquez didn't really answer a single question, but he was much better than I've seen before. He's either had some coaching or he did one hell of a job studying. Whatever the case, he was a different guy that we've seen before.

Gonzalez needs to tighten up the screws and her team needs to invest in some debate prep.