Romney describes Udall as too liberal in Santa Fe

Mitt Romney, no stranger to being a Republican in Democrat-heavy territory, visited Santa Fe to campaign on behalf of U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce.

The former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate joined Pearce at Garcia’s Tire Shop and spoke to a small crowd of Pearce supporters.

“You have to think carefully about who your senators are,” Romney told the crowd. “Think about mine — I’ve got John Kerry and Ted Kennedy.” Kerry and Kennedy are considered two of the most liberal members of Congress to many Republicans.

Romney clearly tried to paint Pearce’s opponent Tom Udall with the same brush. Romney told the crowd, “Unfortunately, Tom Udall and some of his colleagues, Democratic colleagues, are so beholden to the special interests of the extreme environmentalists that they don’t really care about the environment to the extent that we should by getting ourselves off of foreign oil and using our resources right here.”

Romney also called Pearce a “true environmentalist” in his short speech.

Pearce spoke a little bit longer to the crowd and like Romney sharply criticized Udall for some of the Democrat’s stances on energy.

“He’s in favor of nuclear as long as we don’t build it,” Pearce said. “He’s in favor of drilling as long as we don’t do it. What he is not in favor of is for America to be competitive.”

Pearce and Romney did have one fundamental difference this week, however: Whereas Pearce voted against the bailout, Mitt Romney told the Independent, “The most recent bill I would have voted for had I been in Congress. But I recognize that many feel the bill needs to be improved.”

The New York Times wrote Romney “excelled as a deal maker, a buyer and seller of companies.”

When asked, with his expertise in such matters, whether he supported the government’s treatment of AIG and other failing companies, Romney told the New Mexico Independent:

I think that had AIG, for instance collapsed, that the consequences would have spread far beyond AIG. I also think that Fannie Mae and Freddie [Mac] would have been a violation of the implicit understanding that the government stood behind those securities had they not been taken over.

Pearce attacked Udall on Udall’s stance on the labs also. “Three jobs exist outside of Los Alamos for every job inside Los Alamos,” Pearce told the crowd. “So keep that in mind when the Democrats are talking about changing over our mission — they’re talking about getting rid of our jobs and sending those to California or sending them somewhere else.”