{"id":2314,"date":"2007-10-03T18:31:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-04T00:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/wilson-praises-domenici-gives-no-clues-on-her-plans\/"},"modified":"2007-10-03T18:31:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-04T00:31:00","slug":"wilson-praises-domenici-gives-no-clues-on-her-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/wilson-praises-domenici-gives-no-clues-on-her-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilson praises Domenici, gives no clues on her plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>, R-N.M., who will likely consider running for the Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici<\/a>, released a statement this evening calling the senator \u201ca mentor and an inspiration.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> gave no indication of whether she\u2019ll run for the seat being vacated by Domenici, but it\u2019s no secret that she has been the senator\u2019s prot\u00e9g\u00e9 for years.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI understand Senator Pete Domenici will make an important announcement tomorrow,\u201d Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said in a statement released by her office. \u201cWhatever his announcement, New Mexicans can be grateful for all our senator has done for our state and nation. He drove the Balanced Budget Act that led the country to balance the budget for the first time in thirty years in 1998, 1999 and 2000 \u2013 paying off $450 billion in publicly held debt. He was the engine behind the 2005 Energy Bill that is already helping America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> to be more energy independent. He has been honored internationally for his contributions to non-proliferation of nuclear material through the landmark Nunn-Lugar-Domenici legislation and has championed insurance coverage for the mentally ill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPete Domenici has been a mentor and an inspiration to me and I will support whatever decision he makes tomorrow afternoon,\u201d Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Wilson and Domenici have both been under fire in recent months for their involvement in the U.S. attorney scandal<\/a>. Both are targets of preliminary ethics investigations because of allegations that they pressured former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias<\/a> in October 2006 to speed indictments in a public corruption probe involving high-ranking Democrats to influence voters in the November 2006 election.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Questions about Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s potential Senate candidacy include whether the scandal has damaged her reputation to the point that she would have difficulty winning a statewide race. Regardless, a number of Republicans will certainly urge her to run for Senate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, who may also consider running for Domenici\u2019s seat, is the only member of the New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> delegation who hasn\u2019t released a statement on the senator\u2019s pending retirement.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The chairman of the Democratic Party of New Mexico<\/a>, Brian Col\u00f3n, also released a statement this evening about Domenici\u2019s retirement \u2013 fairly cordial words from a man who has spent months attacking Domenici over the U.S. attorney scandal.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cPete Domenici has served the state of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> with distinction over a long career,\u201d Col\u00f3n said. \u201cNew Mexico Democrats will field a strong Democratic nominee who can wage a spirited campaign and win this seat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who will likely consider running for the Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici, released a statement this evening calling the senator \u201ca mentor and an inspiration.\u201d Wilson gave no indication of whether she\u2019ll run for the seat being vacated by Domenici, but it\u2019s no secret that she has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}