{"id":3035,"date":"2008-03-27T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-27T23:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/wilson-says-pearce-trying-to-rewrite-cannon-history\/"},"modified":"2008-03-27T17:32:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-27T23:32:00","slug":"wilson-says-pearce-trying-to-rewrite-cannon-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/03\/wilson-says-pearce-trying-to-rewrite-cannon-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilson says Pearce trying to rewrite Cannon history"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Republican Senate candidate Heather Wilson<\/a> accused primary opponent Steve Pearce<\/a> today of attempting to rewrite history while defending his vote to OK the mothballing of Cannon Air Force Base. <\/p>\n

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

Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has often pointed out Pearce\u2019s vote to support placing Cannon in \u201cenclave\u201d status. He was the only member of the New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> delegation to support the base realignment and closure plan that originally would have done that. But Pearce said today in an interview with 770-KKOB AM radio<\/a> in Albuquerque that, shortly after Cannon appeared on the closure list, \u201call five of us, including Heather, signed a letter saying, \u2018please let us mothball it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cAnd then she\u2019s saying Steve voted to mothball. That\u2019s misrepresenting your position. If you didn\u2019t want to mothball it, why did you sign the letter?\u201d Pearce asked, according to the Wilson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> campaign.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>You can listen to Pearce\u2019s comments by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

The Wilson campaign said Pearce\u2019s claim \u201cattempts to rewrite history,\u201d and said the delegation never asked the Pentagon to \u201cplease let us mothball\u201d Cannon.<\/p>\n

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

The Wilson<\/st1:city> campaign provided me with a copy of an Aug. 29, 2005 letter<\/a> from New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s five members of Congress and the governor to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The letter, which the Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> campaign said is the one about which Pearce was referring, does not ask that Cannon be mothballed. It instead states that, in light of the decision by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission to mothball Cannon, the delegation was anxious to work with the Defense Department to find a new mission for Cannon.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cSteve Pearce has a tendency to say odd things, but this one takes the cake,\u201d Whitney Cheshire, communications director for Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s campaign, said in the release. \u201cThe idea that Pete Domenici<\/a>, Jeff Bingaman<\/a> and Heather Wilson asked the Pentagon to mothball Cannon just doesn\u2019t hold water.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

In October 2005, Reps. Wilson and Tom Udall<\/a> voted to reject the BRAC recommendations that included closing Cannon, while Pearce voted to accept them. Senators, including Domenici and Bingaman, never got to vote, but both released statements after the House vote that indicated they would have voted with Wilson and Udall.<\/p>\n

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

Differing explanations<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The Wilson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> news release states that today\u2019s is the fourth different response Pearce has given when discussing his vote to mothball Cannon. The release states that in Clovis<\/st1:city> on Feb. 5, Pearce explained his vote by saying the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> needed to \u201csave billions of dollars because we had duplicative efforts.\u201d He said in Alamogordo<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> on Feb. 10 that his vote came because \u201cthis community asked me to vote for\u201d the base closure plan because Holloman Air Force Base had escaped closure.<\/p>\n

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

In Albuquerque<\/st1:city> on Feb. 23, the Wilson<\/st1:city> campaign said, Pearce explained his vote by saying he wanted to \u201cmodernize the military\u201d and because White<\/st1:placename> Sands<\/st1:placename> Missile<\/st1:placename> Range<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> and Kirtland Air Force base had survived the base closure process.<\/p>\n

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

I can verify that the explanation the Wilson<\/st1:city> campaign says Pearce gave in Alamogordo<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is accurate, because I was there and heard it. I can\u2019t attest to the others.<\/p>\n

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

Wilson<\/st1:city> said in the news release that Pearce\u2019s vote in support of closing Cannon is an example of why New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> needs her leadership.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have disagreed with him more,\u201d she said. \u201cNew Mexicans deserve a senator who will fight for New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s contribution to our national defense. That\u2019s the kind of commonsense leadership I will provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

I\u2019ve requested a response from the Pearce campaign. If I get one, you\u2019ll see it here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican Senate candidate Heather Wilson accused primary opponent Steve Pearce today of attempting to rewrite history while defending his vote to OK the mothballing of Cannon Air Force Base. Wilson has often pointed out Pearce\u2019s vote to support placing Cannon in \u201cenclave\u201d status. He was the only member of the New Mexico delegation to support […]<\/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-3035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035","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=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}