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New Mexico Republican Rep. Heather Wilson says she plans to run for a Senate seat next year being vacated by her political mentor, Pete Domenici.

In her announcement speech Friday, Wilson praised Domenici and stressed traditional Republican campaign themes of limited government, low taxes, strong national defense and improving education.

"All our children deserve a life where they can be safe in their neighborhoods, with good schools to go to, with high-paying jobs close to home, in a country that keeps them safe from threats to our way of life," Wilson said.

"I look forward to the campaign. I look forward to listening to New Mexicans, to their dreams, to their concerns and to building a brighter future," she said.

Wilson is the first major candidate to declare her candidacy for the seat, which Domenici has held since 1973. Earlier Friday, Democratic Rep. Tom Udall announced that he will not run for the seat.

Her entrance into the Senate race came a day after Domenici announced he was retiring at the end of his sixth term in January 2009. The senator said he had been diagnosed with an incurable brain disease that might prevent him from fulfilling a seventh term in office.

Wilson, 46, was drafted to run for the Albuquerque-area 1st Congressional District seat by Domenici in 1998 after the GOP incumbent, Steve Schiff, died of cancer. Her election made her the first woman from New Mexico to serve in Congress since Democrat Georgia Lusk in the 1940s. Wilson is the only woman veteran serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The filing deadline for statewide offices, including the Senate, isn't until February but potential candidates need their decisions soon to begin raising the millions of dollars a Senate ace will require.

Republican Steve Pearce, who represents the 2nd Congressional District in southern New Mexico, is considering the Senate race along with State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, a Republican in his second term.

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and former Attorney General Patricia Madrid are among the Democrats looking at the race.

Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson said Friday that he's committed to his presidential race and would serve out his term as governor if he doesn't secure the Democratic presidential nomination.

Wilson, an Air Force Academy graduate and Rhodes Scholar, won the 1st District seat in a special election in June 1998 to serve out Schiff's unexpired term and then secured a full term by winning the November general election.

Albuquerque is the state's largest city and the metropolitan area is a critical battleground for candidates in statewide races.

Known as a tough campaigner, Wilson has survived several hard-hitting, well-funded challenges by Democrats. She won re-election last year by 862 votes, defeating Madrid in what was the fourth most expensive House race in the nation. Wilson spent about $4.9 million and Madrid roughly $3.4 million.

Wilson graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1982 and was part of the third class that included women. She once planned to attend flight school but instead went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. She earned master's and doctoral degrees in international relations.

She was on the National Security Council staff from 1989 to 1991, and moved to New Mexico to marry a lawyer who had been a professor at the academy.

In Congress, Wilson has broken party ranks when necessary to keep in line with the moderate views of her swing district.

She voted in 2002 to authorize President Bush to use military force in Iraq, but has since criticized the president's handling of the conflict and opposed Bush's increase in troops in the war zone.

Even before the political shake-up caused by Domenici's retirement, Wilson had been targeted by Democrats and groups had aired television ads because of her stance on the war. A Democratic campaign organization quickly criticized her as a Senate candidate.

"Heather Wilson has voted to support George Bush's failed status quo in Iraq while opposing adequate health care for veterans returning home. She has a long, troubling record that New Mexicans will overwhelmingly reject," Matt Miller, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said Friday.

Wilson, like Domenici, has been nagged by ethical questions because of telephone calls they made to New Mexico's federal prosecutor before last year's general election. David Iglesias, a Republican who was fired as U.S. attorney, has testified in Congress that he felt pressured by Domenici and Wilson to rush indictments in a corruption case involving Democrats. A pre-election announcement of the indictments might have helped Republican candidates, including Wilson.

But Wilson and Domenici say they didn't pressure the prosecutor and made their separate calls to follow up on constituent complaints about the slow pace of an investigation into fraud and kickbacks in a courthouse construction project.

By entering the Senate race, Wilson opens the 1st District seat and there could be a stampede of candidates who decide the race is now attractive because there's no incumbent. Albuquerque City Councilor Martin Heinrich announced earlier this year that he would seek the Democratic nomination. Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White is among the Republicans who is expected to consider the race.