Democrats Welcome Ethically Compromised Heather Wilson to the Senate Race
For Immediate Release Contact: Scott Forrester
March 4, 2011 505-934-681
(ALBUQUERQUE) – The following is a statement from Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairman Javier Gonzales regarding Heather Wilson’s entrance into the U.S. Senate race:
“New Mexico voters will not soon forget the image of a desperate Heather Wilson trying to influence a federal investigation to benefit her campaign in 2006. That’s the kind of politics you get with Heather Wilson and it’s the wrong kind of politics for New Mexico.”
“New Mexicans will never forget her scandal plagued years in Congress and at the State of NM. Wilson, who will try to cast herself as a moderate, is anything but – having voted in lock-step with the George W. Bush agenda that put our nation in an economic tailspin. Clearly Wilson represents a return to the old politics of letting banks and big corporations run wild while average working New Mexicans struggle to avoid foreclosure and stay in their jobs.”
The Heather Wilson file:
- In mid-October 2006, Wilson and Domenici each called Iglesias personally, asking him about the status of the courthouse corruption investigation and possible indictments of New Mexico Democrats. Iglesias, seeing the calls as unwarranted interference in a criminal case by elected officials, refused to give them any information. Iglesias later testified that he was “sickened” by the calls from Wilson and Domenici. [Politico, By John Bresnahan &Josh Gerstein, 8/12/09]
- Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) called Iglesias’s dismissal “the most egregious case of political abuse of the U.S. attorney corps” and said he has forwarded the information obtained by his panel, including depositions of Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, onto a Justice Department prosecutor. [Politico, By John Bresnahan &Josh Gerstein, 8/12/09]
- CQ also found that Wilson doesn't buck the president quite as much as she and her campaign handlers might like us to believe. Starting in 2001, CQ found that Wilson voted in support of Bush's stated positions on issues 88 percent of the time. In 2002, she supported the president 90 percent of the time, in 2003 her support level was 89 percent, in 2004 it was 88 percent. Only in the last year, 2005, did Wilson put some serious distance between herself and Bush, voting on his side of issues just 70 percent of the time. [Wilson Record a Maverick Streak, Not GOP Buckin' , ABQ Journal, by Michael Coleman, 3/12/06]
- In 2001, Wilson voted with House Republican leadership 94 percent of the time, according to CQ. The following year, in 2002, that number dropped to 90 percent. In 2003, the number edged up to 91 percent, then dropped to 79 percent in 2004 and then 82 percent last year, in 2005. [Wilson Record a Maverick Streak, Not GOP Buckin' , ABQ Journal, by Michael Coleman, 3/12/06]
- Democrats criticize Wilson for her decision to return only $10,000 of about $50,000 she received from Americans for a Republican Majority, or ARMPAC, a political action committee founded by DeLay. [Wilson Money Draws Criticism, ABQ Journal, by Michael Coleman, 9/14/06]. Tom Daley was eventually convicted of money laundering and conspiracy.
