The fighting between the two GOP U.S. Senate candidates is continuing, with Heather Wilson attacking Steve Pearce for saying he supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents even though he voted in 2007 against such funding as a member of the U.S. House.
It’s an issue on which Wilson has gone after Pearce in the past, but comments she made in an e-mail to supporters this weekend and that her campaign manager made in a Tuesday news release stepped up the rhetoric.
“Congressman Pearce has given several different explanations for why he voted against funding the Border Patrol,” Wilson wrote in the e-mail. “But like his vote to mothball Cannon Air Force Base and his votes to cripple Department of Energy funding for Sandia and Los Alamos national labs, they don’t make much sense.”
Her campaign manager, Chris Collins, echoed those words in the news release.
“He’s talking out of both sides of his mouth,” Collins said. “Congressman Pearce sometimes says he wants more border patrol, but that doesn’t match his voting record.”
Collins’ comments came after a Pearce response to a questionnaire published Sunday in the Albuquerque Journal stated that the United States must “increase manpower to prevent human trafficking, drug smuggling and cross-border violence.”
Pearce said earlier this year at a debate in Alamogordo that he voted against the funding increase referenced by Wilson because the agency spends $180,000 to train each agent, and almost $160,000 of that is unaccounted for in Washington. He said Wilson has joined the other members of New Mexico’s delegation in engaging in wasteful spending, while he has never wavered from his commitment to reducing government waste.
He also said he later voted for another proposal to increase the number of Border Patrol agents by taking money away from the Transportation Security Administration – an unsuccessful proposal Wilson opposed. He said the two have taken “a different approach” on increasing the number of Border Patrol agents.
Wilson, in her e-mail, said she visited the southwestern corner of the state on Thursday – which is located in the House district Pearce represents – and was “shocked” to be told in Lordsburg that “not one of New Mexico’s federal representatives had actually toured the tough terrain of the border south of their town.”
She said the increase in the number of agents and the temporary stationing of the National Guard has helped reduce the flow of narcotics and human traffickers in the area.
Wilson and Pearce have been sparring in what has become an increasingly contentious primary contest. In addition to the Border Patrol-funding issue, Wilson has attacked Pearce over comments he made about England. Pearce has attacked Wilson for missing votes in the House while she was campaigning in New Mexico. The two have also sparred over the history of the past proposal to mothball Cannon Air Force base.
The fighting between the two GOP U.S. Senate candidates is continuing, with Heather Wilson attacking Steve Pearce for saying he supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents even though he voted in 2007 against such funding as a member of the U.S. House. 
Her campaign manager, Chris Collins, echoed those words in the news release.