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Pearce has taken swipes at Lujan Grisham’s ties to former Gov. Bill Richardson and her former ownership stake in Delta Consulting, a firm that helped manage the state’s high-risk insurance pool; Lujan Grisham has responded by questioning Pearce’s financial dealings in the oil and gas industry, where he made his fortune, and accusing his campaign of endorsing sexist comments from the state Republican Party.

The negativity expressed by both camps as they seek to bury the other in the final stretch has arguably muddled the dividing lines between them.

“It does run the risk of clouding the candidates exploring the details of their policy stances,” said Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff.

The third and final televised debate last week between U.S. Rep. Lujan Grisham, the Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Pearce, the Republican, amounted to a sharp-elbowed clash that often devolved into now-familiar lines of attack.

With those attacks taking up much of the talk, some inflammatory subject areas where the candidates differ have hardly come up.

During the most recent debate, for instance, the issue of gun control appeared in a brief back-and-forth, stemming from a question on school safety. The topic disappeared almost as quickly as it had surfaced.

That’s not to say guns don’t matter here. Lujan Grisham has a plan to get tough on lax gun protections, and the National Rifle Association has enthusiastically endorsed Pearce, warning Lujan Grisham would be “the most anti-gun governor in the history of New Mexico.”

There are also issues like abortion that have played little role at all in the campaign, despite the urging of the abortion rights advocacy group NARAL, which pleaded with newscasters to ask an abortion-specific question at one of the three televised debates — to no avail.

Pearce has been a staunch anti-abortion advocate in Congress, while Lujan Grisham touts the endorsement of Planned Parenthood and has pushed for reproductive freedom.

Seeking to set aside the late-stage campaign animus, The New Mexican has plucked certain areas where the two gubernatorial hopefuls wholeheartedly differ.

There are more than 10, and the sample chosen does not reflect the state’s most pressing concerns, but rather genuine separations in philosophy and approach that would guide how either would govern.

“For a voter who isn’t going to vote on the basis of partisanship, that might be the kind of thing that is important,” said Tim Krebs, chairman of the University of New Mexico’s political science department. “It can be so concrete. They may be saying, ‘Well, I don’t trust either of these candidates on personal things because I can’t distinguish what’s true from false in the television ads I see. But if I knew more about their position on a concrete issue, on the minimum wage, that might help me decide.’ ”

“They clearly do have differences,” Sanderoff said. “It also comes back to their backgrounds. Steve Pearce is up there speaking as a conservative businessman, and that side of him influences his decision-making on marijuana, the budget surplus, minimum wage. She feels more comfortable coming from a liberal, social-services side, taking the risk and spending the money on more teachers, health care, social workers — even if it builds the budget base.”

Cut through the jungle of television advertisements and flyers, and a voter might find Lujan Grisham and Pearce actually agree on the heart of the matter. Both argue the state needs a better education system, a broader economy, an answer to persistent crime and child abuse.

Within those subjects, Lujan Grisham and Pearce disagree to varying degrees, and certainly so on the path forward. Both have tacked to the center in some ways, unsurprising for a general election, with Pearce seeking to shed his conservative culture warrior reputation and Lujan Grisham shrugging off some of the more popular left-wing ideas of the moment.

But on matters like the minimum wage, legalized recreational marijuana and what to do about a $1.2 billion-plus surplus — not to mention issues like human-caused global warming — the candidates are indeed something approaching polar opposites, and New Mexico voters have a choice Nov. 6.

WHERE THEY SPLIT

1. Minimum wage

Lujan Grisham: Has promised an “immediate” minimum wage increase to $10. She said her administration would hike the wage to $12 in four years and thereafter index the rate to inflation. Currently, the statewide minimum wage is $7.50, among the lowest in the country. “It’s adding to the loss of our young people,” she said in September. “I know what it takes as a single mom to raise a family. If you don’t have a sustainable wage, you can’t make the difference you need for your family.”

Pearce: Has said he is opposed to any increase in the minimum wage. Small businesses, like the oil field services company he founded, would be devastated, he has said. “Poverty used to be transitory in America,” he said. “We’ve put the wage so high, people can’t get on the ladder. We’ve made poverty static in this country. It’s caused by these intense government regulations.”

2. Climate change

Lujan Grisham: Has affirmed the well-established scientific consensus that human activity is causing an increase in global temperatures, acknowledging that the effects will harm New Mexico in the form of enhanced drought. She vows to progressively increase the state’s share of renewable energy production and implement methane mitigation rules. “These are philosophical, foundational attitudes a governor should have,” she said. Lujan Grisham’s energy plan would increase the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard to 80 percent by 2040.

Pearce: Has in the past expressed skepticism or outright denial of climate science. Last week, he said through a campaign spokesman that temperatures are rising “and human activity is likely contributing to it. There are real questions to the extent and how much.” He has proposed a broader energy approach, including wind and solar production. Pearce, his spokesman said, has “repeatedly taken steps and supported policies that would reduce carbon and pollution,” though the congressman did applaud when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, saying the agreement would have been a burden on New Mexico families and industry.

3. The expected budget surplus

Lujan Grisham: Has said the projected $1.2 billion-plus windfall the state can expect next year must be treated cautiously. She has said she will work with the Legislature in making infrastructure expenditures, saying they are a sound investment, but also has floated putting some of the new money toward restoring social workers and the state’s public education system. “If you don’t put social workers back in [the Children, Youth and Families Department], then you are not serious about keeping our families and children safe,” she said last week.

Pearce: Has said the expected surplus from the oil and gas sector of the economy should be prioritized toward infrastructure improvements statewide. Putting the surplus toward expenditures that would recur in budget cycles to come, he said, would represent larger government, something he does not want — though he has said the state can increase spending in certain areas like education. He has highlighted broadband internet, sewer, water and roadway improvements and expansions as key areas to fund from the surplus. “Those are the elements in which we will build our future economy,” Pearce said.

4. The permanent fund

Lujan Grisham: Has proposed drawing more money from the state’s $17 billion-plus Land Grant Permanent Fund to invest in early childhood education. Her proposal is more modest than what some Roundhouse advocates have called for, but Lujan Grisham says her “conservative approach” can get through the Legislature and get the ball rolling on an education rebound. The congresswoman also has proposed pulling from the nearly $5 billion Severance Tax Permanent Fund to invest in New Mexico businesses.

Pearce: Has struck a conservative tone surrounding the state endowment, calling proposals to pull from it “risky.” In September, he said the state could “look at expanding” its current early childhood education offerings once a “sustainable” budget was in place. “I’m very cautious about spending out of the future,” he said, adding he would prefer to “broaden” the tax base and fund new programs from there. Campaign manager Paul Smith in September called Lujan Grisham’s planned “raid” on the permanent fund “disturbing.”

5. Guns

Lujan Grisham: Has pledged to pass a statewide ban on semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines in addition to strengthened background checks, restrictions for those convicted of domestic violence and safe storage laws. “I don’t propose violating the Second Amendment rights of any responsible gun owner in any context,” she said. “We have a constitutional right to be safe in our communities.” Still, the National Rifle Association has claimed she “would be the most anti-gun governor in the history of New Mexico if elected,” presumably a point in her favor with NRA critics.

Pearce: Is endorsed and A-rated by the National Rifle Association. In the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting earlier this year, Pearce said he opposed banning semiautomatic weapons like the AR-15 used in that massacre, calling such a prospective restriction ineffective. “Pearce believes we have laws that are not being enforced,” his spokesman Kevin Sheridan said. “Enforce them.” In a televised debate last week, Pearce criticized Lujan Grisham’s proposed ban on so-called assault weapons. “I just don’t understand the idea of taking guns away from people following the law,” he said. A Politico analysis last fall determined Pearce, since 1990, had received the ninth-largest cumulative sum of donations from gun lobbyists of any member of Congress, at $129,250.

6. Medicaid work requirements

Lujan Grisham: Has said work requirements for Medicaid recipients are counterproductive and would “diminish the impact” of such an aid program. She added that a work requirement would make it more difficult for the state to tackle its opioid addiction epidemic and would grow the bureaucracy more than it would help train residents to work.

Pearce: Has promised to immediately require able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work as a condition of receiving benefits. Pearce, who grew up poor but later founded an oil field services company and became wealthy, said the requirements would restore the “dignity” of work.

7. Toll roads in the oil patch

Lujan Grisham: Has expressed opposition to the idea of tolling drivers on the increasingly dangerous roads in the state’s southeastern portion, where oil and gas productivity and thus traffic has surged. “Hardworking, average, middle-class New Mexicans would be asked to pay … for use of those roads,” she said.

Pearce: Has said he will ask large oil producers to build new roads on which producers, not residents, will be taxed. “My opponent makes fun of the toll road idea,” he said. “We will get money from Texas, and my opponent will leave that money in Texas.”

8. Abortion

Lujan Grisham: Is an avowed supporter of abortion rights and has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, which noted that a Gov. Lujan Grisham would make protections for reproductive choice a “top priority.” She has said she would support legislation to repeal the decades-old state law that makes abortion a felony. A spokesman said flatly she would not support any legislation intended to limit access to women’s health care services.

Pearce: Has been a consistent anti-abortion advocate, and his campaign has been endorsed by several anti-abortion organizations. Like Lujan Grisham, the issue has not been central in his campaign. Asked by The New Mexican earlier this year whether a Pearce administration would support abortion access restrictions, Pearce said only that he “would be more engaged in a public dialogue.”

9. Legalized recreational marijuana

Lujan Grisham: Specifying that she will insist on a “balanced, responsible” approach from the Legislature, including regulations for edible products and workplace intoxication, Lujan Grisham has said she will make New Mexico the 10th U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana — the seventh in the West, alongside Alaska, California, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and Washington.

Pearce: Has offered begrudging support for the state’s Medical Cannabis Program but opposes legalization for recreational purposes, calling it a roadblock for state residents already struggling with drug addiction and poverty. “I really think we should look at some of the downsides,” he said.

10. PARCC standardized tests

Lujan Grisham: Has committed to dropping the controversial math and reading tests, saying she wants to begin developing a transition to another testing mechanism that aligns with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act immediately. “PARCC has driven our educators right out of the state,” she said in September.

Pearce: Has been more circumspect about the tests, telling The New Mexican this fall he was hesitant to scrap them because he said students have grown accustomed to them. He added he wants to negotiate a quicker turnaround for test results.

Speaking at the community’s annual Pie Festival earlier this fall, Heinrich talked about water rights, hunting and keeping the local post office open.

In all, he spoke for about one minute.

There was no mention of President Donald Trump or Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who had just gone through his first round of confirmation hearings for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Heinrich certainly made no mention of his two opponents.

For the candidate of a party that seems to be banking on an anti-Trump backlash to win congressional races around the country, it seemed an unlikely approach just a couple of months ahead of Election Day.

Why not throw a few barbs?

To be sure, Heinrich was speaking to the audience in front of him. But it seemed to reflect something about his entire campaign so far.

“Trump will take care of the backlash by himself,” Heinrich said. “People want something proactive.”

The senator had just worked his way through a line of local residents, shaking hands, posing for photos and receiving plenty of thanks for his work on the post office issue — a big deal in a town of a little more than 100 people. Now, he was headed to get some pie because what else do you do at the pie festival? A folk band was playing and kids ran around the town’s park.

For a moment, the strategy all seemed to make sense. You could not get much further from Washington politics.

Heinrich, 47, has spent much of his first term playing up his pragmatic side. Often looking as if he just walked out of an REI catalogue, he can fluently speak about hunting and fishing in the backcountry. But he also has shifted further to the left on a number of issues, from marijuana to gun control.

So, while he has sought to be viewed as one of the hook-and-bullet crowd, he is increasingly signing on to the priorities of progressive Democrats.

Has he not moved to the left?

“I’m not the kind of elected official who makes big movements one way or another,” Heinrich said. “I think about things over time. I watch what’s going on. And I make a decision based on what I can. The facts and the data.”

Heinrich can come off as trying to offer a little something for nearly everybody. It was a tried and true formula for men like Domenici, Bingaman, Montoya: U.S. senators from New Mexico who were familiar and familial enough to be known by their first names — Pete, Jeff and Joe — as much as their voting records.

In this day and age, however, that kind of one-size-fits-many governance may not be enough for anyone.

Trump already has tilted the ideological bent of the U.S. Supreme Court, kneecapped the Affordable Care Act and slashed corporate tax rates in what Heinrich argues was a giveaway to the rich. His opponents are an unabashed conservative, Republican Mick Rich, and Libertarian Gary Johnson, a former governor who is blunt that the federal government needs to overhaul major programs like Medicare.

For all his talk about bipartisanship, the biggest thing Heinrich has to offer his base has nothing to do with joining arms with Republicans and everything to do with being the one candidate in this race who could be a fairly reliable bulwark against them.

The way here

Heinrich was born in Fallon, Nev., and grew up in Cole Camp, Mo., where his dad worked as an electric company lineman and his mom as a factory worker.

He graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in engineering. After college, he settled in New Mexico with his girlfriend, Julie Hicks. They married in 1998 and Heinrich ended up running the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation, a nonprofit group promoting environmental education. In past interviews, he has chalked up the move to the state’s scenery and culture. But the city would also prove to be fertile ground for a political career.

In 2003, he won a seat on the Albuquerque City Council and cut a direct path to Congress; he won a seat representing New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District in 2008. And four years after that, he won a race for U.S. Senate.

New Mexico was arguably more of a purple state at that time than it is now. After all, it was not too far removed from having had a Republican senator. And Gov. Susana Martinez would handily win a second term in 2014.

But jump ahead to 2018 and the political landscape has shifted, with New Mexico becoming bluer, the Democratic Party defining itself roughly through its opposition to Trump, and gridlock becoming the status quo in Congress.

Depending on whom you ask, Heinrich’s approach to the times has either been deliberate and thoughtful or overly cautious and coldly calculated.

Take guns, for example.

Heinrich hedged on the issue when he first got to the U.S. Senate. He had an A rating from the National Rifle Association while in the U.S. House. And the senator has angled to keep sportsmen in his base.

But he publicly split with the NRA in recent years, quitting the organization and coming out in support of a new ban on so-called assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines.

Then, there is marijuana.

Heinrich was noncommittal about legalizing the drug when first elected. But he took to Twitter earlier this year to support legalization.

Johnson’s supporters argue Heinrich has been behind the curve on issues like drugs. This dovetails with the oft-cited point that Heinrich’s family has moved to the Washington, D.C.-area, where his wife works at a public relations consulting firm. Rich accuses Heinrich of having abandoned the state.

Is he just a politician?

Others say all of this is just Heinrich’s style.

“I think Martin kind of tows a pragmatic line,” said Garrett VeneKlasen, a supporter who was recently a candidate for land commissioner and got to know the senator about 10 years ago while fishing.

Indeed, Heinrich has seemed most at home talking about issues that appealed to more than Democratic voters, like public lands. He pushed for the creation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument as well as the Río Grande del Norte National Monument and has backed the expansion of wilderness areas from the Columbine-Hondo to the Sabinoso.

Meanwhile, he has touted bipartisan efforts to change how the federal government pays for fighting wildfires and pushed with Republicans to save Amtrak’s Southwest Chief route. In 2014, Heinrich even traveled to a small island in the Pacific Ocean with Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake for a Discovery Channel show called Rival Survival. It was a reality television version of bipartisanship.

None of this is to say Heinrich has shrunk from being a Democrat. He has supported the Affordable Care Act and emerged as a leading critic of the National Security Agency. His guest at the president’s State of the Union address this year was New Mexico’s teacher of the year, who also happened to have been brought to the country as an undocumented immigrant when she was a child.

And this year, it is bread-and-butter Democratic issues, not bipartisan legislation, that he seems to be betting will be the key to his re-election.

With polls showing his two opponents splitting many of the same voters and Johnson, a two-time presidential candidate, performing well among independents, Heinrich’s best path to re-election may be rallying the party faithful.

In his television ads (he is the only candidate on air at the moment), Heinrich pledges to protect Medicare and Social Security, contrasting himself to Johnson. He has signed on to legislation such as Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” bill. And he opposed Kavanaugh’s nomination from the start.

Still, Heinrich is a pragmatist or a realist or perhaps more simply put, a shrewd politician.

Ask him, for example, what would be the best way to extend health insurance to everyone.

“I’m not that doctrinaire about how you get there,” he said.

Instead, Heinrich suggested the country should probably expand on programs it already has.

“I do think if you’re going to build a program and you have to bring the public along. The best thing you can do is to build on programs that already exist,” he said. “Expansions to either Medicare or Medicaid, I think, are the right way to get there.”

Or, take Heinrich’s vote to confirm Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior. As might have been expected, Zinke has infuriated environmentalists, no small part of the Democratic Party’s base.

But Heinrich defends his vote, pointing out the Trump administration did not cut the size of two national monuments in New Mexico that it had put under review. And it stopped dragging its feet on a land deal that expanded the Sabinoso Wilderness after he went horseback riding with Zinke at the site in San Miguel County.

“I don’t regret it,” Heinrich said of his vote to confirm Zinke. “I don’t think I would have the relationship that I have with him if I hadn’t. I know he would have gotten confirmed. And I worry as to how those two monuments and Sabinoso would have turned out if I hadn’t been able to press my case.”

Some could argue that if ever there were a moment to go at the other side with everything you have got, this would be it. In a recent interview, Heinrich ticks off a list of the Republicans he sometimes worked with on legislation. Flake is leaving, as is Bob Corker of Tennessee. Dean Heller of Nevada may be on the way out, too.

If voters don’t want compromises and deal-makers these days as much as they want crusaders, zealots and evangelists, it begs the question where Heinrich fits in the Trump era.

That is not how Heinrich reads the moment, at least not in New Mexico. Certainly not in Pie Town.

The local fire chief had just stopped to chat with Heinrich about the post office and raising some money for a new playground. A slide behind the two men bent precariously as one child after another descended.

Heinrich the pragmatist, Heinrich the engineer, Heinrich the politician, took stock of the scene.

“People are hungry for optimism right now,” he said. “What have we done well? What can we build on? How do we diversify and how we do move this state forward? I wanted to run a campaign based on the places I can have an impact on.”

Martin Heinrich

Age: 47.

Profession: U.S. Senator.

Experience: Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009-12. Member of the Albuquerque City Council from 2003-07, with one term as council president. Former natural resource trustee for the state of New Mexico and executive director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Missouri-Columbia.

Family: Married with two sons.

Criminal record: None.