Pearce, Erhard Far Apart

The contrast between the candidates in New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District race is stark.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Steve Pearce, who is seeking his fifth term in Congress, wants to continue his quest for smaller government and lower taxes, which he contends would help fuel economic growth.

“We should not raise taxes in a period of inflation and recession,” said Pearce, 65. “We are still in a recession, and it will just thrust us into even deeper taxes. That’s the fiscal cliff we’re facing.”

Pearce’s Democratic opponent, Evelyn Madrid Erhard, wants to bolster government programs and rescind tax cuts for higher-income Americans, arguing that this approach would reduce America’s deficit and lead to job creation.

“In the 2010 census, we were recognized as the second-poorest state; since then, we have become the poorest state,” said Erhard, 56. “This is one of the reasons I’m running. It all deals with jobs. Jobs is one of the biggest issues right now. Times are bad for the regular everyday person.”

In addition to tax policy, the candidates disagree on military spending, a proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher program, immigration, gay marriage, energy development and more.

Pearce, who owns an oil-field services company based in Hobbs, served three consecutive terms in New Mexico’s southern-based 2nd Congressional District, from 2003 until 2009. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2008 and returned home for two years after a general election loss to then-Rep. Tom Udall. Pearce ran for his old House seat in 2010 and won that election, defeating another Hobbs oilman, Harry Teague, who served one term.

Erhard, a resident of Las Cruces for nearly 40 years, is a former communications teacher at Doña Ana Community College and New Mexico State University. She owned a small business from 1982 to 1988, selling folk art in a small storefront shop called the Patchwork Cat.

Pearce voted for a budget proposal by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., that would turn Medicare into a voucher program. He said the voucher proposal could be one way to help shore up the Medicare trust fund, which some say will go broke if it is not restructured. Pearce said the success of such a program would depend on how it’s implemented.

“If they give people a real choice where they can choose their own (health) plan, I think we’re fine,” Pearce said. “It’s something we absolutely have to be talking about. The plan is definitely going broke … and we can’t let Medicare simply fail. We’re all going to lose if the program collapses.”

Erhard said Medicare’s current structure must be preserved.

“In 1965, Medicare passed, and when that happened I remember my mom and dad talking about that at great length and what it would mean to them,” Erhard said. “People work and pay into Social Security and Medicare. Those are not giveaways; those are things they pay into and it will be for their benefit.”

On the question of protecting the Organ Mountains in Doña Ana County, Pearce has written his own legislation, Erhard supports a more restrictive bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.

Pearce’s monument bill would protect about 58,500 acres of the Organ Mountains from development. Bingaman’s wilderness bill would designate 241,000 acres in and around the Organs as federally protected wilderness and an additional 100,000 acres in the Broad Canyon area as a National Conservation Area.

“Bingaman’s bill is one that the majority of people like,” Erhard said.

Pearce has said his bill is a good compromise between conservationists and ranchers who are sometimes on opposite sides of the issue.

“We’re basically trying to protect what we all think of as the Organs from development, but still allow broader access,” Pearce said.

Pearce said he supports extending the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

“We can keep the environment clean … but we need to do that along with creating jobs,” Pearce said. “People are looking for that balance.”

“These are temporary jobs and not enough to make it worth our while,” Erhard countered. “President Obama is opening up domestic drilling for our use, and I support that, but not something as iffy as Keystone XL.”

Erhard said she supports federal legislation declaring gay marriage legal. Pearce supports the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

“I support gay marriage,” Erhard said. “We’ve always had gay people, and why wouldn’t we include them in our civil rights?”

On the subject of immigration, Pearce said he supports creating a system of guest worker permits for immigrants who want to work in the U.S. but don’t have citizenship status. He opposes allowing a so-called path to citizenship for the roughly 12 million immigrants already in the U.S. illegally.

“Many of the people who want to visit this country don’t want to leave where they are, but we make it so difficult to go back and forth,” Pearce said. “The whole process is upside down, and we can do it much better.”

Erhard said Congress should pass a law allowing illegal immigrants to become taxpaying members of society.

“They do all of this work here,” Erhard said. “If we could get them paying into Social Security, paying into Medicare and paying (income) taxes, it would be very helpful.”
— This article appeared on page A8 of the Albuquerque Journal