By Tim Korte/
Associated Press
Republican Rep. Heather Wilson retained her seat Friday, narrowly winning a fifth term in Congress by defeating Democrat Patricia Madrid and overcoming election-season sentiment that battered GOP incumbents nationwide.
Wilson won New Mexico's 1st Congressional District after Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera released the county's final unofficial count Friday night. The county's canvassing board is expected to reconvene Monday to certify the results.
The overall statewide tally showed 105,916 votes for Wilson and 105,037 for Madrid. That gave Wilson a winning margin of 879 votes — with roughly 211,000 ballots cast in the race.
''The people of New Mexico have asked me to continue to represent them in the Congress,'' Wilson said Friday night. ''I am humbled by that trust, and I will work every day to continue to earn it.''
Herrera said the results from Bernalillo included all but just over 500 provisional votes that were disqualified. Voters who cast those ballots will be notified by certified mail that they can protest their disqualification at hearings Nov. 22 and 27.
Madrid spokeswoman Heather Brewer said Democrats would wait for all possible votes to be tallied before making a decision on whether to seek a recount.
''The bottom line is we can't make a decision about what to do next. Other people can declare victory but we choose to wait and let democracy play its course,'' Brewer [corrected from Madrid at 10:35 p.m.] said.
The end to the drawn-out ballot-counting in the state's largest county came 10 days after the Nov. 7 election.
Wilson's win followed a fierce season of negative campaigning by both sides. Polls showed Wilson trailing Madrid, the state's attorney general, just weeks before Election Day.
The Air Force veteran had survived several close contests before in her Democratic-leaning district. But this time, she faced arguably her toughest opponent and had to overcome public distaste for President Bush, the war in Iraq and GOP scandals in Congress.
Brian Sanderoff, an Albuquerque pollster, said the race was close because voters were upset with Republicans in Washington and the Iraq war. But Madrid never energized voters, he said, and was hurt by a poor debate performance late in the campaign.
''Basically this time the Democrats had a candidate with a great resume on paper, but she was not a good communicator and ultimately the weak communication skills cost her the race,'' said Sanderoff.
According to the Secretary of State's office, Madrid held a 1,230-vote advantage in Bernalillo County alone — 95,311 votes to Wilson's 94,081 votes. But the 1st Congressional District includes precincts in four other counties_ and Wilson held a 2,109-vote lead in those counties, allowing for her overall lead of 884 votes in the race.
news 
...go to bookmarks
E-mail Story
Print Friendly
