Who owns the debate debacle?

There is the time honored; "the buck stops here".

In which case the responsibility for the feckless endeavor falls upon the shoulders of Lt Gov Diane Denish, DA Susana Martinez, and APS Supt Winston Brooks.

In reality, it was three people further down on the food chains, who colluded to distance the candidates from the voters and, the people from their government.

I have no idea whose fist pounds the table last, in campaign strategy meetings in the campaign headquarters, so I won't even speculate whose bright idea it was to prioritize minimizing exposure.

I have a pretty good idea of who owns APS' end of the debacle.

It is not APS' Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez. It is his job to smile insipidly while claiming that an independent investigation of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, "... is a matter of opinion and not subject to disclosure under the NMIPRA."

It is not APS Communications Specialist John Miller; he is only the flak catcher and, APS' interpreter of the rights of the press under the Constitution's First Amendment.

He stepped up to tell members of the press that there was no room for them in the room, despite that fact that there were empty spots throughout the debate.

It is he who will be stuck trying to defend APS' position that the government has the right to determine the press pool, and not the press itself, the traditional and defensible deciders.

He will not have to take the heat for the illegal arrest of a dissident.

Likely, no one will.

As for the "debate" debacle itself, as per long tradition;
the senior administrator most responsible for the disaster,
will remain unnamed, unaccountable, and well remunerated.

As per tradition, all of this will go unreported in the Journal.