Wilson Declared Winner by 879 (NM-1)

ABQJournal.com ^ | 11/17/06 | Tim Korte

[LdSentinal]

Republican Rep. Heather Wilson retained her seat Friday, narrowly winning a fifth term in Congress by defeating Democrat Patricia Madrid and overcoming election-season sentiment that battered GOP incumbents nationwide.

Wilson won New Mexico's 1st Congressional District after Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera released the county's final unofficial count Friday night.

The final unofficial tally was 105,916 votes for Wilson, and 105,037 for Madrid. That gave Wilson a winning margin of 879 votes — with roughly 211,000 ballots cast in the race.

''The people of New Mexico have asked me to continue to represent them in the Congress,'' Wilson said Friday night. ''I am humbled by that trust, and I will work every day to continue to earn it.''

[La Enchiladita]

Go Heather! That was a nail-biter.

[BamaAndy]

There was a professor working for the dem I used to denate until we got cut off--I'm sure glad Ms. Wilson won--may he with his inane babble be very, truly unhappy right about now!

[kittymyrib]

Congratulations to Rep. Wilson, who won in spite of the Democrat elections supervisor, Herrera, sending 150 ballots to Republican boxes that should have had 1500. What's a few zeros to a Democrat? They won't matter to the Dem majority as they pass the social spending budgets next year either.

[fieldmarshaldj]

NM-1 has been held by Republicans (Manny Lujan, the late Steve Schiff, and Wilson) since the state was reapportioned from 2 At-Large seats to 2 specific geographical districts (as mandated by the Supreme Court) in 1969. Prior to that election, no Republican had won a House seat in NM since 1928.

[HostileTerritory]

Wilson was first elected in 1998, winning a special election to replace Republican Congressman Steven Schiff, who had won comfortably for years.

There's an important factor to mention. The split in the 1998 special election was 45%-39%-15% R-D-G, with the Democrat a flawed candidate. The rematch in fall was 48%-42%-10% with the same line-up. There's a lot of Nader-like bitterness among ABQ Dems about this result, because Wilson has proved a skilled incumbent and impossible to dislodge. If it were an open seat, I don't think we'd hold it.

[HostileTerritory]

Doesn't that give us 232-203, assuming Republican holds in FL-13 and TX-23?

[pettifogger]

Rep Wilson was in USAFA '82, the third class of women to graduate from the Air Force Academy.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Correct, it's 232D-203R with the new Congress.

Makeup of 110th Congress per each state vs. 109th (current):
AL-5R/2D (No change)
AK-1R (No change)
AZ-4D/4R (-2R)
AR-3D/1R (No change)
CA-34D/19R (-1R)
CO-4D/3R (-1R)
CT-5D/1R (-2R)
DE-1R (No change)
FL-16R/9D (-2R)
GA-7R/6D (No change)
HI-2D (No change)
ID-2R (No change)
IL-10D/9R (No change)
IN-5D/4R (-3R)
IA-3D/2R (-2R)
KS-2D/2R (-1R)
KY-4R/2D (-1R)
LA-5R/2D (No change)
ME-2D (No change)
MD-6D/2R (No change)
MA-10D (No change)
MI-9R/6D (No change)
MN-5D/3R (-1R)
MS-2D/2R (No change)
MO-5R/4D (No change)
MT-1R (No change)
NE-3R (No change)
NV-2R/1D (No change)
NH-2d (-2R)
NJ-7D/6R (No change)
NM-2R/1D (No change)
NY-23D/6R (-3R)
NC-7D/6R (-1R)
ND-1D (No change)
OH-11R/7D (-1R)
OK-4R/1D (No change)
OR-4D/1R (No change)
PA-11D/8R (-4R)
RI-2D (No change)
SC-4R/2D (No change)
SD-1D (No change)
TN-5D/4R (No change)
TX-20R/12D (-1R)
UT-2R/1D (No change)
VT-1D (-1 Socialist)
VA-8R/3D (No change)
WA-6D/3R (No change)
WV-2D/1R (No change)
WI-5D/3R (-1R)
WY-1R (No change)

[proudpapa]

Which one was the lead singer for Heart?

[Torie]

Yes, you are correct. I forgot about the Jefferson seat, and apparently when I last looked, the Simmons seat had not been added to the Dem totals.

[WOSG]

YAHOO!!!

[WOSG]

She deserves a great reward for sticking in there and winning.
I saw the debate snippet and she outclassed the Dem quite a bit.

Then again, I saw other races where we outclassed the Democrat, but the Democrat won (MN-1 is an example).

[George W. Bush]

Hopefully, the Dims won't use their majority to overturn this election as they seem to be planning to do in that Florida election we squeaked out with 387 votes.

[WOSG]

Thanks for the count.

BTW, anytime anyone complains about gerrymandering ... point to this absuridty in massachusetts:
MA-10D (No change)

yikes.

[WOSG]

"I could hardly care less if she got elected this time, since the majority is lost anyway."

We should care, at least to the point of realizing she is the best the GOP could hope to get in the district. If not her it would be a 'Rat liberal. EVERY VOTE COUNTS.

[HostileTerritory]

The sad thing is, it's not the result of gerrymandering. The only gerrymandering we have here is to protect incumbents and give the Boston area far more representation than it deserves. The GOP is so weak here that a totally fair map, with no incumbents, would give us at best even odds in 3 out of 10 districts, and we'd have a hard time finding strong candidates to run.

As an example of the Boston-centered gerrymandering:
* Nantucket and the Cape have a representative from Quincy
* New Bedford has a representative from Newton
* Brockton has a representative from South Boston
* Framingham has a representative from Malden

[lawdude]

"I continue to be amazed at how close to the 50/50 mark America is on everything election related."

'Specially after 6+ years of 24/7 Bush bashing, lies, obstruction (blamed on Bush), and universal print-broadcast media lies and trickery.

[woofie]

Uh Oh ...more votes were found this morning in a shed off south Coors


(thats a joke son)

[greyfoxx39]

Gave me a heart palpitation there, woof.

[woofie]

I have no doubt it can and will happen