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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Pearce Responds To Domenici Letter on Club for Growth Ad
By Heather Clark
Associated Press
Republican Senate candidate Steve Pearce says a television ad paid for by a conservative anti-tax group and critical of a children's insurance program Pete Domenici helped develop was not meant to "disparage'' the senator.
Domenici had called on Pearce to demand the television ad be pulled, saying some of its claims about the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, were inaccurate.
The ad also was critical of Pearce's opponent, Heather Wilson, who was hand-picked by Domenici to run for Congress a decade ago.
Reps. Pearce and Wilson are vying for the GOP nomination in the June 3 primary for the seat being vacated by Domenici, who has been diagnosed with an incurable brain disease. Domenici has said he will not endorse either candidate in the race.
"The ad you referred to has not been on the air since before your letter was received and of course in no way was meant to disparage you,'' Pearce wrote in a handwritten letter to Domenici dated Tuesday. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The ad was part of a $200,000 buy paid for by Club for Growth.Net. The ad stopped running on Friday, but was still available on Web sites, including the Club for Growth.Net site.
A Club for Growth spokeswoman said the group stands by the ad.
Pearce also wrote to Domenici that his campaign has not coordinated with Club for Growth, which is an independent group.
"The organization has a published rating system which indicates you and I are the most fiscally conservative members of our state's delegation,'' Pearce wrote. "I am proud of that.''
Domenici's chief of staff, Steve Bell, said he hadn't seen Pearce's letter and could not comment on it. He said he was not sure whether Domenici had seen it Wednesday.
Domenici, in a letter to Pearce on Monday, wrote that he was "disturbed'' by a line in the ad that characterized SCHIP as one of the "largest tax hikes, welfare expansions, and government-run health care plans in history.''
Domenici called the statement "misleading'' and asked Pearce to demand that Club for Growth remove the ad.
Domenici, the former chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, wrote that the additional cigarette tax that pays for the insurance program is not one of the largest tax hikes in history and, compared to Medicare and Medicaid, SCHIP is a "relatively modest program.''
Bell has said Domenici was not speaking out against Pearce, but just about the ad. Domenici also opposes outside groups trying to influence New Mexico politics.
Pearce has criticized Wilson's support of SCHIP, which he has characterized as socialized medicine. The program required a $71 billion dollar tax increase, that would take 22 million new smokers to pay for, he has said.
A spokesman for the Pearce campaign declined to comment on the latest letter.
Wilson has said she thinks SCHIP needs reform, such as an upper income limit for participants and a way to keep adults and illegal immigrants from participating. She voted for it even though the other reforms didn't pass.
Whitney Cheshire, spokeswoman for Wilson's campaign, said the Club for Growth ad was misleading and attacked a bill that was supported by both Wilson and Domenici.
"My question is how does Steve Pearce know that there was no intention to disparage Sen. Domenici unless his campaign has been communicating with the Club for Growth,'' Cheshire said. "That kind of coordination would be against federal election law.''
Copyright ©2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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