Heather Wilson

File:Heather wilson.jpg

Rep. Heather Wilson

Heather A. Wilson (born December 30 1960), is a centrist, or moderate conservative Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Mexico, and the first woman veteran ever elected to the United States Congress.

Early life

Born in Keene, New Hampshire, Wilson joined the United States Air Force at the age of seventeen, graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1982. A Rhodes Scholar, she continued her education at Oxford University, earning a PhD. 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. 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 the 1st Congressional district of New Mexico (map) in a special election to replace the late Steven Schiff. Although she ran as a conservative in a progressive district, it quickly became apparent she was more accurately described as a fiscal and national security conservative, firmly supported by the defense industries that dominate the economy of New Mexico. She 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...creates a buzz.") Wilson's specific words, "it was nasty", have become well-known soundbites. Although much of Wilson's campaign funding comes from the far right and big oil interests, Wilson has also recently joined the Republican Main Street Partnership, a coalition of centrist Republican leaders. Wilson has appeared on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher.

2004 re-election

In her first national campaign, 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 former House Majority Leader DeLay's ARMPAC campaign contributions, which are now under investigation. to date, Wilson has returned $10,000 of the $46,959 she received from ARMPAC, though Democrats have called on her to return all of the money.[1][2]

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 broke ranks with President Bush and Congressional Republicans when she 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" [3]

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.[4][5]

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 [6]

External links

• Campaign website
• Official website
• Alibi article concerning Wilson's statements on Jackson Superbowl incident
• Pac505 - Anti-Wilson website
• Voting record maintained by the Washington Post

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00006546&cycle=2006 Campaign Contributions http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/13/MNG20JU7DK1.DTL House Eyes National Toxics Law - SF Chronicle