More negative ads hit the airwaves in Senate race

The Club for Growth, which has endorsed Steve Pearce in the GOP U.S. Senate primary, unveiled a new TV ad today attacking his primary opponent Heather Wilson for her vote last year on a children’s health insurance program.

Meanwhile, the liberal Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund began running a new TV ad on Thursday attacking both GOP candidates as part of its continued campaign to help elect Democrat Tom Udall to the U.S. Senate.

The Club for Growth, according to a news release, is spending $200,000 to air its ad on broadcast and cable television throughout the state. Here’s the ad:

It attacks Wilson for supporting the SCHIP bill in the U.S. House last year, which the group characterized in its ad as “one of the largest tax hikes, welfare expansions and government-run health care plans in history.”

It’s an issue that Wilson and Pearce, who opposed the bill in the House, have often fought about on the campaign trail. Click here for the history on Wilson’s support of SCHIP. For full disclosure, someone who now works for Wilson’s campaign wrote the column to which that link leads.

Meanwhile, here’s the Defenders ad, which is part of the group’s Two Bad for New Mexico campaign:

The ad attacks Wilson for her role in the U.S. Attorney scandal and Pearce for allegations that landed him on one Washington group’s list of the most corrupt members of Congress. It also attacks both for alleged anti-conservation votes.

The ad is running statewide, according to a news release from the group, but the size of the buy wasn’t disclosed.