Karl Rove, Susana Martinez, Diane Denish Among Speakers At Domenici Conference

A well-known lineup of speakers, including former press secretaries, U.S. senators, and presidential advisors, discussed and debated public policy and honored former U.S. Senator Pete Domenici at the annual Domenici Conference at New Mexico State University.

Platform speakers included gubernatorial candidates Susana Martinez and Diane Denish.

Martinez introduced her idea for a tuition freeze as an incentive to increase college graduation rates.

“Once they walk in and they know what it’s going to cost them to attend college, they can plan for the 4 year career in college,? Martinez said. ?Instead of constantly facing those hikes in the tuition, they can plan, they can save, they can make sure they have a full 4 year savings in order to graduate from college.”

In addition to low tuition costs, Denish addressed her plan to increase availability of the State?s Lottery Scholarship for students.

“Lets keep tuition costs low as possible, but in New Mexico we have a lottery program that pays almost everything for any child,? Denish said. ?So our incentive should be to graduate with a 2.5 and take a 12 hour load and you’ll get a Lottery Scholarship – our lottery revenues are up.”

ABC News Contributor Sam Donaldson, Joe Lockhart, Bill Clinton?s former press secretary, and Karl Rove, former President Bush?s senior advisor, also spoke.

Following President Bararck Obama?s visit to Fort Bliss Tuesday, Obama announced the end of America?s combat mission in Iraq, one of the items mentioned in Rove’s speech.

Obama mentioned former President Bush?s name in his Oval Office address, but did not give his predecessor any credit for the surge strategy, a mistake, Rove said, which could have easily been avoided.

“If he had said ‘look, I am fulfilling the terms of the agreement, the Status of Forces Agreement negotiated by my predecessor which set the deadline of Aug. 31, and because of the great courage, commitment and dedication of our military we were able to meet that deadline,’ that would have made him look big,? Rove said. ?Everyone knows the agreement was negotiated by Bush, and so he’s making a big deal of essentially executing Bush’s policy without but one sentence mentioning Bush’s name.”

Midterm elections are two months away and Rove predicted significant Republican gains.

Rove said people want change, but in his opinion, it just hasn?t come soon enough.

The Domenici Public Policy Conference was held in NMSU?s Corbett Center Ballrooms Sept. 1-2.