Just hours before her first debate with Martin Heinrich, Heather Wilson has brought in one of her big guns, her mentor former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici.In it, Domenici claims Heinrich "voted for massive new defense cuts that will cost twenty thousand New Mexico jobs." He's referring to last year's deficit-reduction stop-gap agreement (agreed to by both parties.) Unless some agreement is reached in Congress before next year, there will be across across-the-board spending cuts, including cuts at the national laboratories.
Domenici, who stepped down at the end of 2008 after 36 years in the Senate, is still very respected in the state. However, his endorsements have not swayed any elections lately.
In 2008, he endorsed Wilson for Senate just days before the June primary after staying neutral through most of the Republican battle. However, she still lost to Steve Pearce in that contest. (Pearce later lost to Tom Udall in the general election.)
In 2010, Domenici backed his son Pete Jr. in the GOP gubernatorial race. At first the younger Domenici was considered the front runner due to name recognition. However, he ended up placing 4th in the 5-candidate race.
Here's the new ad:
UPDATE: 12:15 pm: Heinrich's campaign responds to the ad :
"Heather Wilson’s accusations against Martin Heinrich are getting more desperate, but they’re still not true. The idea that Martin would vote to cut 20,000 jobs in New Mexico is ridiculous, and Congresswoman Wilson knows that. Martin has consistently fought against cuts to our military bases and national labs—like the cuts that the Ryan budget, which Heather Wilson has said she `admires,' would have imposed on our labs. Voters in New Mexico deserve a debate about who will do more to protect and grow jobs for the middle class, not more false attacks."
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