Pearce continues attacking Wilson’s missed votes

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce continued today his attacks on primary opponent Heather Wilson for being in New Mexico campaigning this week instead of voting on bills in Washington.

Today, Wilson missed her 22nd vote of the week, the Pearce campaign stated in a news release sent this afternoon. She has missed votes on “expanding opportunities for college students to get loans to pay for school” and “an important vote to add FISA legislation to a bill,” according to the release.

The release points out again, as the Pearce campaign did on Wednesday in a separate news release, that Wilson missed a vote on Tuesday on whether to strip sanctuary cities – those that refuse to help the federal government enforce immigration laws – of their tax-exempt status. The proposal failed on a tie vote, 210-210, so Wilson could have cast the vote that would have led to House approval of the proposal.

Wilson was one of 15 members of the House who missed that vote.

“New Mexicans have to be asking themselves where in the world is Heather Wilson,” Pearce Campaign Manager John Billingsley said in a news release. “Heather Wilson is putting her political interests above the interests of her constituents here in New Mexico and her responsibilities as the people’s representative. New Mexicans deserve better from their representative and from their Senate candidates.”

“I wouldn’t want to be in Heather’s shoes when she tries to explain to New Mexicans why she missed votes on making college loans more available to students and why she wasn’t there to vote to protect our country by allowing our government to wiretap terrorists,” Billingsley said. “New Mexicans were counting on Heather Wilson to stand up for them in Congress, but now we know that she has different priorities, and voters will remember that on June 3.”

The Wilson campaign referred questions to her congressional office because the issue involves votes. If I receive comment, you’ll read it here.

Update, 4:15 p.m.

Wilson’s congressional spokesman, Enrique Carlos Knell, released this statement:

“Congresswoman Wilson is in New Mexico this week,” he said. “She has a full schedule and is talking to people about things that are important to the future of New Mexico.”