NM-Sen: Wilson & Pearce Debate in Los Alamos

Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce faced off on Friday in Los Alamos as the two current members of Congress from New Mexico continued their often nasty battle to be the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate here. KRQE News 13 live-streamed the debate on its website and you can now view an archived video of the entire event here.

In her opening statement, Heather calls herself a "common sense conservative," citing the usual no taxes and for-the-family lines. She then rushes right into how she believes the family is the "fibre" of our nation. Well, except for GLBT families. She stresses in one of her first sentences how she's for marriage being reserved for "one man and one woman." You know the routine. How that's more "common sense" than Pearce's approach, I have no idea.

The two GOP candidates appear to be clones on most major issues. During the debate a major point of contention was who would be better at eternally increasing the nuclear weapons budget for Los Alamos National Labs while, at the same time, being against every other state's so-called "pork."

Wilson also deemed herself a "tough boot" for winning her past races in NM-01, perhaps to try and compensate for her strangely shaky voice during the debate, compared with Pearce's soft-talking but steadfast he-man routine.

On health care they both offered the weak, business as usual "market-based" prescriptions, although Pearce threw in the nugget that he believes health care savings accounts can cut the use of health care if you pile up some money in your account. Then, you'll be more likely to want to save it by taking an aspirin and nixing a trip to the emergency room. I'm not kidding.

I could go on, but why not view the video yourself (if you like to watch paint dry) or, better yet, read the Los Alamos blog The Bomb Town News Observer for an engaging first-hand account.

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