Pearce on Monday announced that he will challenge Democratic Rep. Harry Teague, who was elected last November to represent the state's 2nd District, a 69,000-square-mile expanse of southern New Mexico that takes in Las Cruces and Roswell.
It's not a rematch.
Pearce represented the district for three terms, then declined a re-election bid in 2008 to pursue an open Senate seat that he lost badly to Democratic Rep. Tom Udall.
Pearce's candidacy statement attacked Teague's voting record, including his vote for a climate change bill the House narrowly passed on June 26. Pearce said Teague has "embraced a reckless set of policies that directly jeopardize our economy and threatens future generations."
According to a CQ analysis of House votes, Teague this year has sided with Democrats 87 percent of the time on "party unity" votes that pit a majority of Democrats against a majority of Republicans. That is the 32nd lowest among House Democrats.
Teague sided with most Democrats in voting to expand funding for children's health insurance programs and for a war supplemental spending bill; he opposed most of his party members in voting against the fiscal 2010 budget resolution.
According to my calculations, John McCain defeated Barack Obama by 50 percent to 49 percent in New Mexico's 2nd.
UPDATE: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats, has fired back at Pearce, accusing him of "reckless fiscal leadership" and linking him to the policies of President George W. Bush.
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Steve Pearce was an irrelevant rightwing congressman and would have been an equally irrelevant senator. The fact that he chose to run against a fellow, more senior Republican who had a better shot of winning an open senate seat in 2008 and the fact that he then went on to lose by 20 points proves that Pearce is more concerned about his political ambitions than he is about serving the people of New Mexico.
Posted by: mag_amberson
| July 6, 2009 4:54 PM
Damn fool never should have left the seat open in the first place. However that Cap & Tax vote will be used as a sledgehammer against Teague, especially in that district. A Toss-Up race.
Posted by: NObama
| July 6, 2009 6:25 PM
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