New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce is on track to eke out a win over Heather A. Wilson , another House Republican, in the party’s primary for the seat of retiring Sen. Pete V. Domenici.
Should Pearce’s narrow lead in the late vote count hold up, he will have prevailed despite the late-campaign intervention by the long-popular Domenici on Wilson’s behalf — and will set up a general election race of contrasts with New Mexico’s other House member, Democratic nominee Tom Udall .
After months of often combative campaigning, Pearce led Wilson by 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent with 92 percent of precincts reporting as the canvass lingered into early morning Wednesday.
Though both candidates brought strong Republican credentials into the race, Pearce pitched himself to primary voters as the more conservative choice. Club for Growth, a national political action organization best known for its opposition to taxes and government spending, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads criticizing Wilson.
Domenici, who had helped Wilson get her start in politics and appeared in the past to be prepping her to succeed him, had remained neutral after Pearce entered the primary and made it a showdown of the state’s two House Republicans. But Domenici pointed to the interference by outside groups such as Club for Growth when he endorsed Wilson last Friday. “Heather Wilson is the brightest member of Congress I know, and I hope she wins,” he said in a statement......
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