Posted on 06/04/2008 9:30:05 AM PDT by CedarDave
Steve Pearce won the Republican nomination in the race for U.S. Senate over rival Heather Wilson and will now turn to the challenge of keeping Sen. Pete Domenici's seat in Republican hands.
The southern New Mexico representative won Tuesday's primary with roughly 51 percent of the vote, compared to Wilson's 49 percent with 99 percent of precincts reporting statewide, according to unofficial results.
Pearce, who ran as a right-wing conservative, will face Democrat Tom Udall, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, on Nov. 4.
Wilson endorsed Pearce this morning, saying that Republicans have "no time for disappointment or for bitterness."
"Republicans have made their choice and I gladly accept it," she said.
Wilson, a moderate Republican who has served the Albuquerque-area 1st District since 1998, will be out of a job next January. She vacated her House seat to run for Senate — a decision she said she did not regret.
Wilson said she did not know what she would do next but that considering her broad resume, "I don't think I will be unemployed come January."
Because New Mexico is a swing state, the general election is likely to be one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country, with New Mexico's winner possibly tipping the balance of power of the Senate.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
(BTW, the two Republican candidates on the presidential ballot were McCain and Ron Paul. I left that spot blank.)
Thanks for posting
Here is the problem with that ‘nominate the electable mod’ thinking: It’s the big-spending nanny-state RINOs who have now ruined the GOP ‘brand’ so much that *neither* RINOs nor the ‘right-wing conservatives’ can win. Being a moderate didnt help DeWine in Ohio in 2006, for example.
And the press will be in the tank for the liberal/leftist anyway. Might as well run our guy and aim for a real victory. Pearce will make a great Senator, like DeMint, Coburn, Sessions and a few others are great senators.
Kudos to Wilson for quickly endorsing Pearce.
It will be tough, but if Obama implodes, Pearce has a chance.
Pearce, strong on immigration beat out Wilson who represented the ‘squishy middle’. Interesting.
I alternate between agreeing with your comment and my knowledge of Heather and her record and maybe a better chance to beat Udall. Now that the primary is over, Pearce has my complete support.
Wonder whom lord McCain will campaign for either officially or cough cough unofficially????
New Mexico is just the type of state where having the democrat ticket headed by barack curious george mcgovern will hurt them. What hurts them helps us. Whom would you rather have above your line, barack or McCain? If McCain and Pearce are smart they will hit the rats hard on abortion. The Hispanic vote and the Navajo vote can be won on abortion.
Decided to post this to you here, also:
Steve Pearce narrowly won Senate against Heather Wilson — will go against enviro-nut Udall (not hopeful about this race).
District 1 - Popular Sheriff Darren White won easily, will go against far-left newcomer Martin Heinrich
District 2 - Restaurant owner Ed Tinsley against Hobbs oilman (but liberal) Harry Teague
District 3 - Rio Rancho developer Daniel East (beat Domenici aide Marco Gonzales) against Ben Lujan (son of a powerful northern NM Dem legislator).
My first call is that we will retain both District 1 and 2 seats, but lose the Senate. If so, we will have two liberal -to- leftwing senators as Bingaman is completely in the Rat camp.
That’s my take on it too.
The presidential choice was depressing.
My take is that the AG crap hurt Heather, but I'm satisfied with Pearce. I think Udall will be hard to beat in any case.
I'm somewhat thinking the "yearning for change" bug may have hit Heather a little bit too.
What kind of change if any, is showing up in the dem camp?
As a fellow New Mexican said to me today, "we live in interesting times."
“(BTW, the two Republican candidates on the presidential ballot were McCain and Ron Paul. I left that spot blank.)
“
I gritted my teeth and voted for Ron Paul. Why? Because, of course, I will not vote against McCain in November by voting for Obama, so therefore, I voted against McCain yesterday by voting for Ron Paul.
Hope my vote makes some sort of sense, since I have no idea how the vote in November will turn out.
IMHO, the U.S. Attorney flap did Heather Wilson in. As for Steve Pearce, he’d be a great Senator, but Tom Udall is the favorite, and having the MSM as his cheerleading squad doesn’t hurt him.
Of course, the good news is that Udall has never faced a serious opponent in his entire career. After checking the NM politics blog, it looks like we’ll be holding both the House seats. In NM-1, Heinrich barely won the Dem primary and Sheriff Darren White won a landslide against a State Senator. In NM-2, Pearce’s runner-up opponent from several cycles ago, Ed Tinsley, won the GOP nod and will face a rodent who spent three-quarters of a million dollars only to barely win the Dem nod and ran hard to the left to do it, Harry Teague. The bad news was in Udall’s seat where we failed to nominate a decent Hispanic candidate that had Domenici’s backing in favor of some nobody Anglo. This time around, the Dems nominated a Hispanic. There was some hope we had an outside chance had a rich Anglo bought the Dem nomination and faced the Hispanic Republican, but that’s gone now. Sadly, Domenici’s endorsements were utterly worthless. Not a great way to go out.
I don’t know about those House races. There’s no doubt that Darren White is a great candidate, but even he could lose in the current political climate. And I’m so far not sure about Ed Tinsley. Not that I’m against him. But he’s in an industry that is notorious for employing illegal aliens. You can bet that Ed Teague will spend his megabucks looking into that.
I think if McCain carries NM, those two will be carried along.
Pearce’s winning was the only bright spot at all in my district on the national races, although my picks in the state and local runs mostly won.
I like Steve as a person, and as my voice in Washington. Heather lost my financial and ‘moral’ support (Moral only because I’m outside her district and couldn’t vote for her) a couple of years ago, and has done little to get back in my good graces since. I would have voted for her had she won the primary, but not with any enthusiasm, and not with any financial support.
Course that’s the down side of Steve winning.... I’m going to have to keep writing checks now. ;-)
Or happily since he endorsed Wilson. Good of her though to endorse Pearce instead of being a b*t**.
This may be good news for her, since if Pearce actually wins, she might be in a good position to run for Governor in 2010 against Richardson’s Lieutenant (y’know, the one he liked to feel up). However, if Pearce loses but comes close, he should run for Governor.
Pearce has the support of Hispanics down here as his family includes several and he has supported others with college assistance, IIRC. He needs to introduce himself to District 3 voters and he may do better than we expect.
The oil patch doesn't always employ US citizens, either, especially in support jobs the require heavy labor. I know some companies that teach safety classes entirely in Spanish since none of the students can speak English. And the Wal-Mart and other stores here are full of Spanish speaking shoppers.
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