Wilson and Pearce head to "The Hill"

Republican senate hopefuls square off in Los Alamos debate

The two Republican candidates vying for retiring U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici’s seat went at it over Los Alamos National Laboratory funding, border security and other issues during a two-hour primary debate in Los Alamos Friday. The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Steve Terrell and the Los Alamos Monitor’s Roger Snodgrass have good accounts here and here. Or for a more irreverent but no less thoughtful analysis, check out this Los Alamos blog, the Bomb Town News and Observer. Meanwhile, this New Mexico Independent video offers a visual taste of how the two handled the issues, including the Iraq war, LANL funding, border security, global warming and electability.

Both candidates have been spending time in Republican-friendly Los Alamos, trying to woo the thousands of lab workers who have been on edge about federal budget cuts and layoffs. Wilson addressed LANL employees a couple of weeks ago. Pearce is meeting with workers there today. The two have been sparring over how they voted on last year's proposed cuts, which were eventually restored. Wilson has been blasting Pearce for supporting amendments to an Energy and Water appropriations bill that would have meant deeper cuts than Democrats had proposed. Pearce says he was opposed to wasteful spending unrelated to the labs and pointed out that Wilson herself voted against the final omnibus budget bill that had restored the funding. I wanted to follow up with Wilson about that vote and some other issues following Friday's debate, but she declined to talk with me.

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