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The future and the past of New Mexico come together in its single metropolis, Albuquerque. Its Spanish and Indian past is memorialized in its name (for a 17th Century Spanish grandee) and age (founded in 1706) and its quaint Old Town; its high-tech future is symbolized by Sandia Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base, the government installations that are the city's biggest employers. When rocket scientist Robert Goddard moved here in 1930 and nuclear scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer reconnoitered the site in 1940, Albuquerque was still a town of 35,000 sitting at the junction of the Rio Grande and the old U.S. 66 that paralleled the Santa Fe Railroad--''a dirty red sod-hut tortilla desert highway city,'' Tom Wolfe wrote. Since then, Albuquerque has grown more than any place in New Mexico and, with a metro population of 678,000, has as many people as all New Mexico did when the scientists first arrived. Albuquerque's prosperous neighborhoods have climbed the gently rising heights to the east; poorer residents have spread north and south along the Rio Grande. Hemmed in by mountains and federal installations, growth is now moving west, across the Rio Grande, to the new town of Rio Rancho, with Intel, Olympus, U.S. Cotton and Pepsico installations. Albuquerque is counted as part of the Sun Belt, but its climate is closer to that of the High Plains of west Texas: hot in the summer, sometimes very cold in the winter, with high winds most of the time. Nor is its economy like that of other Sun Belt cities. It has lower income levels; its recent growth has lagged behind Phoenix, Dallas, and even El Paso. Albuquerque has some white-collar job growth and diversification and has become something of a tourist center (it is home of the International Balloon Fiesta every October), but it still depends heavily on government.

The 1st Congressional District is, for all practical purposes, the city of Albuquerque and its suburbs; it also includes largely empty Torrance County and communities north and south along the Rio Grande. Albuquerque is one Sun Belt city which is not solidly Republican, but not solidly Democratic either; it voted for Ronald Reagan and George Bush in the 1980s and for Bill Clinton in the 1990s. The 1st District in 1990 was 38% Hispanic, with both descendants of longtime New Mexicans and recent immigrants.

The congresswoman from the 1st District is Heather Wilson, a Republican and the winner of two elections in 1998 against the second-highest spender in the history of House campaigns. She grew up in New Hampshire, graduated from the Air Force Academy, then became a Rhodes Scholar, winning an Oxford degree in international relations. After leaving the Air Force, she served in 1989-91 on the National Security Council in charge of NATO and European affairs. In 1991 she moved to New Mexico, to marry her former Air Force Academy law instructor; she started a consulting firm and then Governor Gary Johnson appointed her secretary of the Children, Youth and Families Department.

Then, in January 1998, just 12 days before the filing deadline, Congressman Steven Schiff announced he would not run again. Schiff chaired the Basic Research Subcommittee, critical to Albuquerque, and had helped create the Petroglyph National Monument on the west side of town; he was one of four ethics committee members who found a way to compromise in the case of Newt Gingrich. But after surgery in April 1997 for a form of skin cancer, he did not return to Congress; the cancer recurred, and he died in March 1998. In January, Senator Pete Domenici, usually loath to intervene in local politics, backed Wilson strongly; after the county Republican chairman filled vacancies by appointing Wilson backers, she beat a conservative state senator for the state central committee endorsement by winning 55 votes, the exact minimum required. The Democratic nomination was captured by Phil Maloof, a young state senator from a wealthy family that made its fortune through beer distribution, casinos, banking interests, hotels and professional sports franchises; a statue of his late father stands in Albuquerque's Civic Plaza. Also running was Green Party candidate Bob Anderson; fresh in everyone's mind was the fact that the Green candidate had won 17% in the 3d District special election in May 1997 and helped Republican Bill Redmond to an upset 43%-40% win.

This was a key race for both parties. A Democratic pickup in a House seat held by Republicans for nearly 30 years would help put Democrats on a flight path to a majority; a Republican hold would show the party could still hold marginal seats. Wilson's slogan was ''fighting for our families,'' and her first ad showed her two-year-old daughter running into her arms; she concluded speeches by talking about reading to her four-year-old son on the roof of their house. She called for a dollars-to-classroom program, with less money for bureaucracy, and for a pilot program of school vouchers. She also called for eliminating the marriage penalty and reducing death taxes. Maloof, appointed to the state Senate in 1993 and elected in 1994 and 1996, talked of his work in the legislature on a three-strikes law, the Montano Bridge, and a mobile police unit. He favored raising the minimum wage, opposed school vouchers, and ran soft-focus ads playing on his family's 100-year history in New Mexico (next to Wilson's seven).

But in the short campaign between April 2, when the first ads went up, and the June 23 special, the tone quickly became negative. ''A vote for either Heather Wilson or Bob Anderson is a vote for Newt Gingrich and his right-wing Republican agenda,'' Maloof said. In turn, Wilson said Maloof was ''too young,'' while brandishing a tricycle (he was 30 and she 37) and too inexperienced; claiming that he ''doesn't understand the issues'' and ''is hiding behind his family's money.'' In fact, Maloof's performance on the stump was poor: He seemed bewildered by a debate question about the Endangered Species Act and replied that camping is ''something I really enjoy.'' Wrote Jack Moczinski in the liberal weekly Alibi, ''Maloof at times seems to be a political mannequin, placed in the storefront window for voters as this year's political haute couture. He looks good, but what's inside?'' The Republican campaign committee started sending out daily ''Mal-OOPS'' faxes. Meanwhile, the cerebral Wilson got a reputation for being nervous, aloof and arrogant. When Maloof attacked her for supporting a bill for vouchers for at-risk children, she reminded him brusquely that he was a co-sponsor: ''I was testifying in favor of your bill. Do your homework.''

The toughest ads came when Maloof ran a spot showing footage of a 1996 KOAT-TV report alleging that Wilson, while commissioner of Children, Youth and Families, ''abused her position of power'' by moving a state foster-family file about her, her husband and their foster son. The charge at first cut into Wilson's small lead in polls; she countered that she ordered the file sequestered, and did not read it herself, to keep it away from those who might use it politically.

Democrats also criticized her for not voting in three elections, though Maloof skipped one of them also. Media coverage of this race bemoaned the negative tone. And certainly it could not be avoided by watchers of Albuquerque TV: Maloof spent $3.1 million, almost all of it his own, up through June 23, and some $5.3 million by November, the third most expensive House campaign in history (after Newt Gingrich's 1996 and 1998 campaigns); Wilson spent $1.1 million by November, with the national Republican Party pouring in another $1 million. Democrats sent in less money but more celebrities: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dick Gephardt, Patrick Kennedy, Tipper Gore and Loretta Sanchez.

But for all the hoopla and negative charges, issue positions and perceived competence seemed to make the difference. On June 23, Wilson won 45% of the vote, Maloof 40% and Green Party nominee Bob Anderson, though he spent less than $10,000, won 15%. Of Wilson's 11,744-victory margin, 6,564 came from absentees after Republicans conducted a strong absentee drive (predictably Democratic legislators in February 1999 sought to make illegal the mailing out of absentee ballot requests). Local analysts said that the Green vote included not just left-wing environmentalists but also voters disgruntled with the negative campaigns of both major parties. For November, Maloof tried to appeal to environmentalists; he switched to oppose the road proposed to cut through 8.5 acres of the Petroglyph National Monument, and Anderson's former campaign manager endorsed him. But on November 3, the margin was similar: Wilson 48%, Maloof 42%, Anderson 10%.

Wilson thus became the first woman veteran to serve in Congress. Her first vote was cast for IRS reform; she also voted for reducing death taxes and continuing the research and development tax credit. She cast moderate votes on public broadcasting, discrimination against gays, contraceptive coverage for federal employees. She bragged about getting $5 million for realistic hardware testing at Kirtland and $1.4 million to buy remaining Tres Pistolas property in the East Mountains. She has a bill to proclaim the old U.S. 66 as America's Main Street. Wilson was given a seat on the Commerce Committee, a fine perch for legislating and fundraising, in August 1998. Speaker Dennis Hastert also used Wilson as his point person on Kosovo; she lead two Kosovo discussions during conference meetings and gave the Republican response to Clinton's radio address on the situation. Her prospects for re-election seem reasonably good against a less free-spending candidate.

Cook's Call:
Competitive. Wilson's sub-50% showing in 1998 makes her an intriguing target for 2000. Democrats, however, need to recruit a much stronger candidate than they did in 1998. A credible Green Party candidate could also give the Democratic nominee trouble.

The People:

• Pop. 1990: 505,329
• 7.6% rural; 10.9% age 65+;
• 77.8% White, 2.6% Black, 1.5% Asian, 2.7% Amer. Indian, 37.8% Hispanic origin; 15.4% Other.
• Households: 51.7% married couple families; 25.9% married couple fams. w. children; 53.6% college educ.; median household income: $27,074; per capita income: $13,373; median gross rent: $350; median house value: $84,600.

1996 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 93,178 (48%) Dole (R) 82,613 (43%) Perot (I) 9,520 (5%)

1992 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 95,754 (45%) Bush (R) 81,038 (38%) Perot (I) 33,034 (16%)