Domenici seeks to pull TV ad critical of Wilson

Senator calls Pearce advertisement 'misleading' about health insurance program

Heather Clark | The Associated Press

5/19/2008 -

ALBUQUERQUE — Sen. Pete Domenici on Monday called on Steve Pearce to ask that a television advertisement paid for by a conservative anti-tax group and critical of Pearce's Senate opponent, Heather Wilson, be taken off the air.

The ad was paid for by Club for Growth, which seeks to elect lawmakers opposed to tax and spending increases. The group made a $200,000 ad buy to run the spot for a week across the state.

The ad stopped running on television Friday, a spokeswoman for the group said. But it could still be viewed on a Club for Growth Web site and at least two other sites Monday.

Reps. Pearce and Wilson are vying for the GOP Senate nomination in the June 3 primary. Domenici, whose seat they are seeking, has declined to make an endorsement in the race.

Domenici, in a letter to Pearce dated Monday, said he was "disturbed" by a line in the ad that characterized the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, as one of the "largest tax hikes, welfare expansions, and government-run health care plans in history."

"In light of the misleading and highly selective assertions in the Club for Growth television ad, I would respectfully ask that you demand that the Club for Growth takes (its) advertising off television," Domenici asked Pearce in the letter.

Domenici's chief of staff, Steve Bell, confirmed the senator had written the letter after seeing the ad on television while in Albuquerque.

Bell said Domenici is "not speaking out against Steve Pearce, he's speaking out against the ad and there's a big difference."

A spokeswoman for Club for Growth had not seen the letter Monday afternoon and said she could not comment immediately.

A spokesman for the Pearce campaign also said he was not aware of the letter and declined to comment immediately.

Domenici, the former chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, wrote that, in his experience, 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 that helps the children of our state more than almost any other state," Domenici wrote.

Domenici helped develop the SCHIP program more than 10 years ago, the letter said.

"For the senator this is reasonably personal and ... New Mexico probably benefits more than any other state on a per capita basis," Bell said.

Pearce has criticized Wilson's support of SCHIP, which he has characterized as socialized medicine. The program required a $71 billion tax increase, which would take 22 million new smokers to pay for, he has said.

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.

A spokeswoman for the Wilson campaign declined to comment on Domenici's letter.

Domenici also is opposed to outside groups coming in and trying to influence a race, Bell said.

"Their ads continue the nasty practice of outside groups that try to infiltrate federal elections in states that have unique needs, needs that the Club for Growth apparently remains ignorant of," Domenici wrote.