Heather Wilson came out firing in her first debate with fellow GOP U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce on Tuesday, but Southern New Mexico’s congressman held his own against the tenacious congresswoman from
At the debate, which was held in the heart of Pearce’s House district in
“You can’t talk about securing the border if you’re not willing to spend the money to hire the guys to do the job,”
Pearce spent much of the night on the defensive, but his explanations for votes
He said he voted against the increase in Border Patrol funding because the agency spends $180,000 to train each agent, and almost $160,000 of that is unaccounted for in
“I have done it time and time again in the
The candidates also sparred over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Wilson, a proponent of the program, supported a bill last year that would have placed greater checks on ensuring undocumented immigrants couldn’t access the program and phased out adult access. However, she said, “extremes in both parties” – Pearce was among those who adamantly opposed the bill – “demagogued this to death” and ended up killing it.
As a result, Congress temporarily extended the existing funding plan that didn’t include the fixes
Pearce complained that the proposal
In response to a later question about cutting government waste, Pearce said he would make cuts to the Medicaid system, which he said is fraught with waste, fraud and abuse.
Pearce fights back
In response to the attacks, Pearce accused
“That’s the soft underbelly of American politics that does not have a place in this nation,” Pearce said.
He said, while he voted against the Border Patrol-funding bill Wilson used in her attack, he supported another proposal to increase the number of Border Patrol agents by taking money away from the Transportation Security Administration – an unsuccessful proposal Wilson opposed.
“I don’t stand up and accuse Heather of being soft on the border,” Pearce said. “It’s just a different approach.”
“You’ve got to look at the greater good, Steve,” she said.
The lab cuts were supported by U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, the third candidate in the Senate race, and
Pearce defended the vote, saying he could cut 1 percent from the DOE budget “and never touch the labs.”
Closing statements
“You can’t talk the talk if you’re not willing to walk the walk,”
Pearce devoted most of his closing statement to responding to the attacks.
“Heather talks about that BRAC vote – the one that was going to mothball Cannon – as if I was opposed to Cannon. That’s just not true. Our office was one of the ones that jumped in and said we’ll find a mission for Cannon,” Pearce said. “When we talk about these votes in simplistic fashion that I’m against Cannon, it’s a disservice to the politics, it’s a disservice to us as public leaders to try to simply a vote and cast it like that.”
And he launched an attack at Wilson, who had called herself a “commonsense conservative” throughout the evening, highlighting the differences in their votes on abortion and related issues.
“You know, I’ve listened to the words ‘commonsense conservative’ and I do not understand the commonsense version of voting for cloning,” Pearce said. “I do not understand the commonsense version of voting for stem cell research on embryos when we can do the same thing with adult stem cells, and I do not understand how a person can say that they’re pro-life and have a 42 percent rating. I really can’t. I’ve got a 100-percent rating on the pro-life issue.”
I was unable to find the 42-percent rating Pearce spoke about. Click here to see
In the end, the debate was a draw. Most I spoke with after it ended were impressed with the performances of both candidates.
Here’s video of Pearce’s opening and closing statements:
And