{"id":4088,"date":"2008-12-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/12\/conservative-to-the-end\/"},"modified":"2008-12-22T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-22T14:00:00","slug":"conservative-to-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/12\/conservative-to-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative to the end"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve Pearce stayed true to his right-leaning views even as his Senate campaign went down in flames. What will he do now?<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, few would say Steve Pearce<\/a> didn\u2019t stand by his principles.<\/p>\n

As the Republican congressman from southern New Mexico\u2019s 2nd Congressional District prepares to leave office and face an uncertain future, one thing that can be said about him is that he has consistently held to his right-wing values during his six years in office and his failed campaign this year to replace Pete Domenici<\/a> in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Many would say Pearce\u2019s Senate campaign went down in flames at least in part because of his refusal to budge. Conventional wisdom is that a Republican has to be somewhat moderate to win statewide office in New Mexico, but Pearce didn\u2019t move to the center during the general election campaign against Democrat Tom Udall<\/a>, and he lost by 23 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised about that,\u201d New Mexico State University government professor Jose Z. Garcia, a Democrat, said about Pearce\u2019s refusal to move to the center. \u201cI guess I would simply conclude that either Steve Pearce is not ready for the state of New Mexico as a whole or the state of New Mexico as a whole is not yet ready for Steve Pearce, because if he really believes these things, then he\u2019s out of step with the majority of voters in this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, Pearce is about to be replaced in the House by Harry Teague<\/a>, the first Democrat to hold the seat in 28 years. Whether someone wedded to right-wing values in a left-of-center state can come back after such a crushing defeat is unclear, but Pearce, who didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment for this article, has already revealed his intention to run for public office again in 2010.<\/p>\n

Pearce\u2019s record<\/span><\/p>\n

Pearce spent much of his time the U.S. House opposing tax increases and government spending, including one proposal to increase the number of Border Patrol agents because he said the agency is fraught with waste. He was often the lone member of the New Mexico delegation who refused to compromise, which meant he opposed a lot of proposals in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have done it time and time again in the New Mexico delegation, standing alone,\u201d Pearce said during a primary debate<\/a> against outgoing U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>, the more moderate of the GOP primary candidates, in Alamogordo in February. He was speaking with pride about his refusal to compromise his conservative values.<\/p>\n

Two of Pearce\u2019s last acts in Congress were opposing the $700 billion financial bailout and later the $14 billion bailout for the American automobile industry — proposals that were loathed by the libertarian wing of the GOP. Pearce\u2019s staunch opposition to government spending and taxes earned him the adoration of the libertarian-leaning Club for Growth<\/a>, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars this year promoting Pearce\u2019s Senate campaign.<\/p>\n

Opposing spending and taxes isn\u2019t all for which Pearce\u2019s tenure in the House will be remembered. He has been a strong supporter of the war in Iraq, even when the rest of the delegation expressed doubts, and he visited that country in February 2007<\/a> and again in September 2007<\/a> to report home on the situation there. He\u2019s advocated increased drilling as a way to help America become energy independent. He was an outspoken opponent of the expansion of the State Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program<\/a> approved by Congress and the president last year, even as the rest of the delegation voted to approve it.<\/p>\n

Pearce broke with the rest of the state\u2019s congressional delegation in voting in 2005 for the base realignment plan<\/a> that included closing Cannon Air Force base. Cannon was later given a new mission and kept open. He has also been a vocal opponent of designating any areas in Do\u00f1a Ana County — including the pristine Organ Mountains — as wilderness, breaking even with Domenici as on a proposal to protect the mountain range.<\/p>\n

He has been an assistant Republican whip and is the outgoing ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee\u2019s Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. In 2007 he also tried to become vice-chair of the Republican Conference, the fourth most powerful Republican in the House, but he was easily defeated<\/a> by another member of his caucus.<\/p>\n

Ginny Robertson, a Las Cruces Republican who is active in the county party and has worked with Pearce on various issues, said the congressman has been \u201ceasily accessible,\u201d particularly when she took concerns related to her small business to him. Garcia, the NMSU professor and political analyst, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that he will be remembered as having pretty good constituent services, and I think that the record will indicate that, at least in this county, he did reach out to Hispanics,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

The future<\/span><\/p>\n

Pearce, who has been an elected official since he won a state House seat in 1996, appears to be plotting his return to elected office. He has said he is considering running to become chairman of the state GOP<\/a> in January, and many Republicans expect him to run.<\/p>\n

Pearce has already said he will consider running for governor in 2010<\/a>, and he has been telling other Republicans that, if he becomes party chair, he may have to step down from that position halfway through the two-year term to run for elected office in 2010. Another option frequently mentioned for Pearce is running against Teague in two years to try to reclaim his House seat, and then running for Senate again when Jeff Bingaman<\/a> retires, which might happen in four years.<\/p>\n

Robertson, who fully expects Pearce to run for state party chair, said she\u2019s \u201cthrilled that he has decided to continue his public service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we regroup and rebuild, I think he\u2019s a great pick for GOP chairman,\u201d she said. \u201cI just think he is a great asset to our state and if we\u2019re lucky enough to get him as chairman, oh, I\u2019ll just be so pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though many Republicans have complained about how the Pearce\/Wilson primary divided the GOP, Robertson said Pearce \u201cwould be great in unifying the party\u201d because of his \u201cservant heart\u201d and his ability to get past north\/south rivalries in the state.<\/p>\n

Garcia said he would advise Pearce against challenging Teague, \u201cbecause 99 percent of all incumbents get re-elected and I\u2019m not sure that people, certainly the 11 percent that Teague won by, would just be given right back to Pearce. Harry is a likeable person, among other things, and if he doesn\u2019t screw up it should be easy for him to win re-election.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Pearce wants to be governor, Garcia said, he\u2019s going to have to \u201cchange his approach to political discourse,\u201d talking less about big ideas about government and focusing on more pragmatic ways to solve New Mexico\u2019s problems with tangible proposals.<\/p>\n

Pearce opted to watch his Senate campaign crash and burn this year, rather than shift gears as Garcia suggests, so why would he change now? Garcia says he might not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure he has it in him to make that kind of a transition, since in the public service we\u2019ve seen so far from him, he never showed a lot of flexibility in his approach to politics,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Pearce stayed true to his right-leaning views even as his Senate campaign went down in flames. What will he do now? In the end, few would say Steve Pearce didn\u2019t stand by his principles. As the Republican congressman from southern New Mexico\u2019s 2nd Congressional District prepares to leave office and face an uncertain future, […]<\/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-4088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088","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=4088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}