Heather Wilson

Heather Wilson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico's 1st district
Incumbent
Assumed office June 23, 1998–
Preceded by	Steven Schiff
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Jay Hone

Heather A. Wilson (born December 30 1960), is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Mexico, the first woman veteran ever elected to the United States Congress. Much of her legislative focus has been on national security issues.

Early life

Born in Keene, New Hampshire, Wilson joined the United States Air Force at the age of seventeen, graduating magna cum laude from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1982. A Rhodes Scholar, she continued her education at Jesus College, Oxford University, earning a D.Phil.. in International Relations.

Career

Upon leaving the Air Force in 1989, Wilson became Director for European Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council. After leaving government, she founded Keystone International, Inc. in 1991 to promote business development in the United States and Russia. She is the former Secretary of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Family Department.

Wilson was elected as a Republican member of the House of Representatives in 1998 to represent New Mexico's first district. In 2004 following a debate with her Democratic challenger Richard Romero, former New Mexico Republican Gov. David Cargo said, "She is essentially a fairly conservative Republican." That year, the Albuquerque Tribune also wrote, "In reality, Wilson's six-year record of voting in Congress reveals a loyal, dependable vote for the official Republican Party position on the overwhelming majority of issues. Much more so than either of the Republican congressmen who represented Albuquerque before her. During the last three years of [Steve] Schiff's tenure in Congress (1995-1997), he voted the Republican Party line 78 percent of the time. During the last three years of [Manny] Lujan's service (1986-1988), he voted with the House Republican leadership 65 percent of the time."

Wilson is the first woman to represent New Mexico since Georgia Lusk in the 1940s, and is also the first female veteran to be elected to Congress. In the House, she serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

In 2004, Wilson denounced CBS and Viacom following Janet Jackson's halftime performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII in which Jackson revealed her nipple. ("You knew what you were doing ... you wanted us all to be abuzz.") Wilson's specific words, "it was nasty," and her crying after the event, have become well-known soundbites: most notably perhaps on The Howard Stern Show, which received threatening notices from representatives of Wilson demanding an end to the show's negative discussions and bits related to Wilson. In late 2006, The Howard Stern News dubbed Wilson the "you knew kook" in reference to her much lampooned soundbite.

Wilson has recently joined the Republican Main Street Partnership, a coalition of centrist Republican leaders. Wilson has appeared on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher.

In 2003, Wilson voted against allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. The Secretary would have the authority to use the purchasing power of the federal government to negotiate contracts with manufacturers in order to ensure that enrollees in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit paid the lowest possible price. Drug manufacturers lobbied heavily against drug re-importation and price negotiations in part because of the lower consumer costs it would bring.

According to Congressional Quarterly, since 2001 Wilson has voted in agreement with George W. Bush 89 percent of the time, and with the Republican Party nearly 90 percent of the time. Despite this, in 2004 during her re-election campaign, Wilson ran an ad in which an individual said, "Heather Wilson is the most independent politician I have ever known…she is non-partisan." Additionally, she ran an ad in with John McCain who said, "Heather is also an independent thinker, and like me has been known to buck her own party…" [Wilson Campaign Ad, 2004]. According to the Albuquerque Tribune, Wilson "was forced to change committees because she offended… Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, by siding with Democrats…. 'He told me I was too independent,' said Wilson."

Since 2001, Congresswoman Wilson has been a member of the House Page Board, and is currently a member of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's caucus.

2004 re-election

In her first campaign for congress, the Republican National Committee provided a great deal of Wilson's campaign funds because of her perceived strong credentials on national security.

Wilson was the number-four recipient of money from then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC campaign contributions. ARMPAC was subsequently dismantled due to its fraudulent distribution of funds. Wilson returned $10,000 of the $46,959 she received from ARMPAC, though Democrats called on her to return all of the money.

During Wilson's reelection campaign in 2004, her political opponent, Richard Romero, ran advertisements which made the suggestion that her votes in Congress aided Osama bin Laden because she had voted against a bill to require the screening of cargo holds. Wilson's campaign countered with a policy ad stating "Richard Romero opposes death penalty for child molesters who kill their victims." Wilson won the election by a 10% margin over Romero, the same margin of victory she had against Romero in the 2002 election.

NSA Warantless Domestic Surveillance

On February 7, 2006 Heather Wilson called for a full congressional inquiry into the NSA warrantless surveillance. Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times suggested that "the congresswoman's discomfort with the operation appears to reflect deepening fissures among Republicans over the program's legal basis and political liabilities"

Wilson's appeal for more oversight came nearly two months after existence of the citizen spying program first became publicly known. Some believe that her late outcry became politically necessary due to the increased heat coming from Wilson's first formidable election opponent, Attorney General Patricia Madrid. In the days before Wilson spoke up, Madrid's campaign released both a fund-raising report showing Madrid had out-raised Wilson in the previous financial quarter and a poll putting the two candidates in a statistical tie.

Alleged Involvement In Firing of US Attorney

Main article: 2006 Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy

According to McClatchy Newspapers & The Dallas Morning News, prior to the 2006 midterm election Rep. Heather Wilson called and "pressured New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator. Wilson was curt after Iglesias was non-responsive to her questions about whether an indictment would be unsealed." Iglesias was fired one week afterward by the Bush Administration. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has issued subpoenas to require Iglesias, among other recently ousted U.S. attorneys, to testify before Congress about their firings. [1] [2]

Ex. Gov. David Cargo (R-NM), accused Wilson of "essentially taking the Fifth [Amendment]" defense thus far. [3]

Husband Jay Hone's hidden file

Critics have long argued that one of Heather Wilson's improper uses of power as the Secretary of the State of New Mexico's Department of Children, Youth and Families, was to have her husband, Jay Hone's, confidential file removed from the Department's central location. The story first broke when, in 1996, an Albuquerque, NM based news organization (KOAT-TV) confronted Heather Wilson about the file's removal. At that time, Wilson denied removing the file but ultimately admitted doing so during a press conference just days later. A copy of the story was available on YouTube but was recently removed due to copyright reasons.

The documents Heather Wilson removed later resurfaced. The documents contain the allegation that Jay Hone made unwanted physical contact with a male minor's rear end while "reaching for a slice of pizza." The minor alleged the contact appeared sexual in nature. These allegations were made by a troubled teen living at Hogares, a group home. The documents confirm that DCYF and police thoroughly investigated the allegation, and found that it lacked sufficient credibility to be turned over for prosecution.

2006 Election

In the 2006 elections, Heather Wilson faced an election day challenge from New Mexico Attorney General Patricia A. Madrid. The race was Wilson's toughest challenge since taking office. Since early September 2006, Wilson had been behind in all polls. For example, a poll taken from October 24-29 by Reuters/Zogby showed Madrid leading Wilson 53-44. Nevertheless, the election day results were far more favorable to Wilson. According to the Albuquerque Journal on Thursday, November 9, 2006, Wilson possessed a 1,300-plus-vote lead with 99% of the votes counted. Nevertheless, the final results and a formal certification of a winner needed to be delayed until additional hand-tallying of paper ballots and provisional ballots were completed. (Historically many provisional ballots are thrown out because of lack of signatures or many are not registered voters, according to County Clerk Mary Herrera.) Later that same day (November 9th), Wilson declared victory in the congressional race, although Madrid refused to concede. Finally, on Tuesday, November 21, 2006, two weeks after the election, Madrid conceded to Heather Wilson. Madrid lost the election by 875 (out of 211,000) votes, or 0.4%.

Awards

• U.S. Chamber of Commerce Spirit of Free Enterprise Award, 2000
• Information Technology Industry Council Perfect Vote Score, 2000
• Watchdog of the Treasury “Golden Bulldog” Award, 2000
• NFIB "Guardian of Small Business Award," 2000
• The Seniors Coalition Senior Legislative Achievement Award, 2000
• Hero of the Taxpayer Award, 1999

External links

• Campaign website
• Official website
• The Website of Wilson's 2006 Opponent
• Negative website: Washington Wilson Watch
• Alibi article concerning Wilson's statements on Jackson Superbowl incident
• Pac505 - Anti-Wilson website
• Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
• Campaign Contributions.
• House Eyes National Toxics Law - SF Chronicle.
• Brian Beutler, rawstory.com, October 19, 2006, "Congresswoman on page board buried file on husband's child abuse allegation".