I live in NM-02 in an area that is a spot of blue in an otherwise very red district. The good news is that the Democratic incumbent, Harry Teague, is currently leading in the polls. The sad news is that Steve Pearce, after being sent packing in the wake of his Senate loss to Tom Udall, is now crawling back to try and reclaim his old seat. Pearce is attempting to paint himself as a moderate in commercials and interviews, which is bull, so I called him out in a LTE of my local newspaper, and they published it, uncut and unedited!
Full text over the jump.
Editor:
I’ve had all I can stand with former congressman Steve Pearce and his supposed new-found concern with his former constituency.
I’ve seen his fear-mongering commercials on TV as well as the article in El Defensor Chieftain (Sept. 8,) wherein he now appears to be concerned about creating jobs for New Mexicans. I was also invited to and participated in his recent town hall teleconference where he continued to promote false and distorted information about Social Security and the recent healthcare legislation. Now, he’s purporting to be a man of the people, concerned about government spending and job growth, but let’s take at quick look of some of Pearce’s record during his service as representative in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District.
During his tenure from 2003-2009, Steve Pearce oversaw and participated in the biggest government spending spree in history — from $2.16 billion in 2003 to $2.98 billion in 2008 (Source: usgovernmentspending.com).
Steve Pearce sat in the Congress that approved record setting deficit spending — from $378 billion in 2003 to $1.41 trillion in 2009, and permitted the national debt to explode to unheard of levels — over $7.9 trillion when he left office (Source: usgovernmentspending.com).
Steve Pearce sat in the Congress that allowed more and more deregulation of the financial, gas, oil and mining sectors that resulted in the near collapse of the financial market, the Gulf Oil spill and the Sego and Massey mine catastrophes.
During Steve Pearce’s tenure, more jobs were lost than created (Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics), and as a result, Steve Pearce watched as more and more people struggled while the wealth gap between the already wealthy and the middle and working classes grew ever wider, and the poverty rate increased from 35.9 million in 2003 to 39.8 million in 2008 (Source: US Census).
Steve Pearce voted in lockstep with his political masters for an illegal war based upon ginned up information which has contributed to these mass deficits and debt (found those WMDs yet?). And, in an act of hubristic political theater that can be considered nothing short of offensive, Steve Pearce blew off a meeting with his constituents here in Socorro to fly back to DC to vote in favor of the single most intrusive piece of legislation the federal government ever had the audacity to vote on: interfering in the extremely private, personal and emotionally difficult case of Terry Schiavo.
Pearce knows it is unconstitutional to vote on legislation that benefits one individual. His claim of being in favor of states rights, individual liberty and less government intrusion rang hollow the moment he cast his vote. In my opinion, Steve Pearce violated his oath of office and that should immediately disqualify him from ever seeking another term.
As for his future vision for New Mexico, Steve Pearce looks to the past by promoting the same tired and ineffective policies that have gotten us into this mess in the first place: tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans (of which he is included) that do nothing to stimulate job growth and continue to add to our national debt; more deficit spending; more deregulation, which will lead to more unnecessary disasters; and a further erosion of our social safety nets which serve to provide some degree of security in our most vulnerable times.
You want to know what you’ll get by voting for Steve Pearce? Go to www.ontheissues.org/House/Steve_Pearce.htm to see his past voting record. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.
There are those of you who will vote for Pearce simply because he is a Republican. So be it. I can’t change your mind. But for those of you who are undecided, the facts speak for themselves.
If you think those who have been in office for the past 20 months are responsible for our current situation, think again. Look to those who were serving in the six to eight years prior and ask yourself if you want them to continue the same failed policies that got us into this mess in the first place. We’ve seen what happened during Steve Pearce’s tenure, and I for one do not want to see it happen again.
Many voters have a short memory. It is my intention to remind them just how poor a congresscritter Pearce was, and hopefully get the undecideds to vote for Harry Teague in November.