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Activists eye Pearce as potential target in 2008
Environmentalists may look to unseat the Hobbs Republican
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WASHINGTON — Rep. Steve Pearce, long a foe of the Endangered Species Act and climate-change legislation, is in the crosshairs of a powerful national environmental group.
The Defenders of Wildlife Legal Action Fund recently ran a radio ad attacking the Hobbs Republican. The group may target Pearce next year for the same kind of massive ad and get-out-the-vote effort that helped unseat the former chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, northern California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo, in 2006.
"It's too early for us to pick our targets for 2008," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the fund. But "Mr. Pearce had the same voting record that Mr. Pombo had the last two years."
Pearce said he wouldn't be surprised if independent groups spent money against him and is increasing his own fund-raising targets to respond, but he doesn't think he's as vulnerable as Pombo.
"We just don't have a San Francisco in the 2nd District," said Pearce, referring to a portion of Pombo's district.
Schlickeisen said people didn't think Pombo was vulnerable either until groups like Defenders of Wildlife spent more than $500,000 to defeat the incumbent. Pombo lost to a wind energy consultant, Democrat Jerry McNerney.
Pearce won re-election in 2006 with 59 percent of the vote over the Democratic candidate, Al Kissling. Pearce outspent Kissling by a nearly 8-to-1 margin, $1.4 million to $185,000. But Kissling did carry Doña Ana County and the portion of Bernalillo County in District 2.
Kissling plans to run again, but another Democrat, Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley, has already raised more than $140,000.
A third candidate may join them. Rick Bolanos ran unsuccessfully last year in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat representing El Paso, but the New Mexico native is reportedly considering a move into Pearce's district.
Pearce said he began planning for a tougher campaign in 2008 after seeing 33 of his House GOP colleagues defeated in 2006. He said he has already raised about $400,000 and could spend as much as $3 million to win re-election.
McCamley said that if Defenders of Wildlife and other groups decide to spend money against Pearce, it will show they think he is weak.
Pearce was one of five Republicans the Defenders' Legal Action Fund accused in radio and Web ads of having their heads "stuck in the sand" because of their opposition to climate-change legislation. The others were Ken Calvert and John Doolittle of California, Rick Renzi of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada.
Schlickeisen noted that Pearce led the opposition when the Natural Resources Committee approved an energy/climate change bill June 22.
Pearce said the earth is warming, but it has warmed in the past.
"At the end of the day, we're going to give away American jobs for a science that is unclear," Pearce told The Tribune.
He said the bill also would have hurt efforts to develop wind turbine farms in New Mexico by restricting electric transmission line corridors.
The week after the committee's action, the House voted down, 258-172, an amendment by Pearce to block an ongoing program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce the Mexican wolf into New Mexico.
"They're killing too many livestock," Pearce said. "And they're endangering people and pets in my district."
Rep. Norm Dicks, a Washington Democrat, said Pearce's amendment would overturn the entire Endangered Species Act.
"We can't cancel the entire program because of these isolated problems," Dicks said.
Replied Pearce, "I think the gentleman has no wolves in his district."
Pearce's potential opponents also suggested the wolf issue has been overblown. Kissling said Pearce overstates the wolf problem, while McCamley said Pearce spends too much time focusing on wolves instead of more important problems facing the district, such as water shortages and health care.
