Heather Wilson's vicious new attack ad contains outright lies. These lies were exposed in this morning's Albuquerque Journal. Watch the ad and see the proof after the jump.
Here's the ad:
Sounds pretty damning, right? Well, as usual, it's a bunch of right wing spin that not only mischaracterizes but out and out lies. According to the Albuquerque Journal (subscription only):
"Madrid was asked to investigate, and she did nothing," says the new Wilson ad, which began airing this week. "A whistle-blower wrote Madrid a letter with details on the scheme. Still, Madrid did nothing."
Madrid spokeswoman Heather Brewer called on the Wilson campaign to pull the TV ad, calling it untrue.
"Heather Wilson likes to talk a lot about her integrity and her honesty. She's got an ad on the air right now that is a patent lie," Brewer said.
Wilson campaign spokesman Enrique Carlos Knell said the campaign stands by the new TV spot.
"The New Mexico media ... have well documented Madrid's failure to investigate corruption in New Mexico," Knell said. "We stand by our ad."
Now, here's the proof that Wilson's ad contains outright lies:
But the letter used during Vigil's trial was not stamped as being received by Madrid's office, Goodwin testified in April. The Attorney General's Office said it never got such a letter.
The just-produced, May 18 letter from Department of Finance Administration Secretary Katherine Miller-- whose agency oversees the board of finance-- backs Madrid's position.
"Our office conducted an extensive search and found no documentation in our current files or archives of such a letter being signed and sent by then-Secretary Field," the letter from Miller says.
Heather Wilson must've hired the Swift Boat media firm. But, this time, it's backfiring. Fortunately for Wilson, her corporate friends are getting her back. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce just went up with a $100,000 ad buy thanking Wilson for her support of the pharmaceutical company giveaway masked as the prescription drug bill.
While most Congressional campaigns are still fairly quiet, this one is heating up fast. And, given Wilson's viciousness, you can bet that Republicans across the country are going to take a similar tone very soon. Let's hope Rahm, Chuck and the rest of the beltway boys don't just do the Lieberman indignant thing. Let's hope that they take some cues from Lamont's (and Bill Hillsman's) playbook and be bold, principled and actually fight back.
Madrid's up with a few ads in response that you can see here and here.