I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
On Monday, former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson announced she will run for U.S. Senate. Wilson quickly picked up endorsements from prominent New Mexico Republicans, including former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, and criticisms from Democrats, who noted her involvement in the scandal of fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.
Wilson’s announcement came after U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman announced that he would not seek re-election in 2012. Bingaman has served in the U.S. Senate since 2012.
“Mother, wife, small business owner, Air Force officer, member of Congress, I am and have been all of these things,” Wilson said. “And today, you can add one more: I am a candidate for the United States Senate.”
Wilson said she’s running because she is “deeply concerned about the future of our country.” The choices made by the current White House and “a Democratic-led Senate are pointing us in the wrong direction,” she said.
Federal government has had a 24 percent increase in federal spending over the last two years. “They’ve gone on a spending spree,” Wilson declared.
This would be Wilson’s second attempt at becoming a U.S. Senator. After Domenici decided not to run in the 2008 elections, Wilson ran and lost in the primary to Steve Pearce. Both Wilson and Pearce had left their seats in the U.S. House for the run.
Pearce was defeated in the general election by Tom Udall, who also left his seat in the House for the Senate run.
The former congresswoman received some high profile endorsements out of the gate. Domenici, who also endorsed her in 2008, said in a statement, “The nation needs her, and it’s up to us to send her there. I endorse her candidacy wholeheartedly and I’m going to do everything I can to help her win.”
Wilson said that “almost half of the Republicans in the House or in the Senate are endorsing me today.”
Wilson also received the endorsement of former U.S. Congressmen Bill Redmond and Manuel Luján.
“I watched Heather serve in the House for ten years,” Lujan said in a statement. “She stood up for policies that help small businesses create jobs and was known by everyone as the ‘go to’ person when people had problems with the federal government.”
Former Republican gubernatorial candidates Allen Weh, Janice Arnold Jones and Pete Domenici, Jr., were also in attendance at the announcement.
Democrats quickly reacted to the entrance of Wilson, the first top-tier candidate in the race to replace Bingaman. The state Democratic Party referenced her role in the scandal of Iglesias.
“New Mexico voters will not soon forget the image of a desperate Heather Wilson trying to influence a federal investigation to benefit her campaign in 2006,” Democratic Party of New Mexico chair Javier Gonzales said in a statement. “That’s the kind of politics you get with Heather Wilson and it’s the wrong kind of politics for New Mexico.”
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee created a video painting Wilson as a Washington, D.C., insider.
Pearce also weighed in on Wilson’s announcement.
“Right now, I am working hard at the job that the people of New Mexico sent me to Congress to do,” Pearce said in a statement. “The filing deadline is still nine months away, and I have plenty of time to make decisions. I’ll reach out to my supporters, but now, for New Mexicans, the stakes are higher than personal ambition.”
