Rep. Heather Wilson (R) Elected June 1998, 3d term
Born:	Dec. 30, 1960, Keene, NH
Home:	Albuquerque
Education:	U.S. Air Force Acad., B.S. 1982, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford U., M.A. 1984, Ph.D. 1985
Religion:	Methodist
Marital Status:	married (Jay Hone)
Military Career:	Air Force, 1978-89.
Professional Career:	Dir., European Defense Policy & Arms Control, White House NSC, 1989-91; Pres. Keystone Intl. Inc., 1991-95; NM Secy. of Children, Youth & Families, 1995-98.
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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, but Albuquerque's future is decidedly high-tech. For decades, the Sandia National Laboratories, Kirtland Air Force Base and the University of New Mexico have attracted scientists and engineers to Albuquerque and promoted private sector technology growth. Here in 1975, Bill Gates founded a little company called Micro-Soft; although the software maker moved its 16 employees to Seattle in 1979, Intel Corp. now employs 5,500 people here in an advanced chip-making facility.

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. Now, metro Albuquerque, spreading out from Bernalillo County into Sandoval and Valencia Counties, has more people (712,000 in 2000) than 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 the Sandia mountains and by federal installations, growth is now moving west, across the Rio Grande, and to the north, especially to the new town of Rio Rancho, home of the Intel plant and facilities for Sprint PCS, Tricon and Victoria's Secret. The Petroglyph National Monument, a 7,200-acre preserve of ancient volcanic flows, faces Albuquerque's westward development head-on: Here, hikers in search of 500-year-old Indian carvings can witness the steady encroachment of tract housing right up to the park's borders, an evolution that has prompted a long battle over whether a road should be built through the monument to aid commuters. Albuquerque is counted as part of the Sun Belt, but its climate is sometimes very cold in the winter, and windy most of the time. Its economy also differs from those of other Sun Belt cities and despite the tech base has lower income levels than Phoenix or Denver. While Albuquerque has seen some growth in tourism--it is home of the International Balloon Fiesta every October--it is still heavily dependent on government jobs.

The 1st Congressional District includes the city of Albuquerque and some of its suburbs. It takes in most of Bernalillo County and stretches out into the desert to include sparsely populated Torrance County. But the 1st does not include most of New Mexico's big-growth suburbs, Corrales and Rio Rancho to the north in Sandoval County and Isleta and Las Lunas to the south in Valencia County. The 1st is almost 43% Hispanic. Metro Albuquerque is politically competitive: It voted for Ronald Reagan and George Bush in the 1980s and for Bill Clinton in the 1990s. In 2000 the 1st District gave a very narrow margin to Al Gore.

The congresswoman from the 1st District is Heather Wilson, a Republican first elected in a June 1998 special election. She grew up in New Hampshire, graduated from the Air Force Academy, then became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. She served in the Air Force until 1989, then worked two years 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.

In January 1998 1st District Republican Congressman Steven Schiff announced he would not run again; he died two months later. 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 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. Wilson's 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. Maloof 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). Maloof spent $3.1 million, almost all of it his own. Wilson won 45% to 40% for Maloof and 15% for Anderson, though he spent less than $10,000. Local analysts said that the Green vote included not just left-wing environmentalists but also voters disgruntled with the negative campaign. All three candidates ran again in November. Maloof tried to appeal to environmentalists, and Anderson's former campaign manager endorsed him. But the margin was similar: Wilson 48%, Maloof 42%, Anderson 10%.

Wilson thus became the first woman veteran to serve in Congress. Her voting record has been relatively moderate. She has seats on two major committees, Armed Services and Energy and Commerce. On occasion she showed independence, as when she voted against the amendment to prevent adoptions by gays in the District of Columbia. She also worked on the bill to increase safety at public health labs. When she complained that Republicans planned to bring a bill to the House floor that would have moved the nuclear weapons program from the Energy Department to the Pentagon, party leaders made changes. Republican leaders tapped her as a leading advocate for George W. Bush's energy plan, and she filed the House-passed amendment to limit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to 2,000 acres. After September 11, House members sought her advice about war in Afghanistan and Iraq. In May 2002 the House passed her bill rescinding the policy requiring servicewomen in Saudi Arabia to wear abayas; she called it "offensive to American servicewomen and offensive to American values."

Wilson has faced well-financed challengers. John Kelly, the former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico and a friend of Bill Clinton since both were undergraduates at Georgetown, ran in 2000. The campaign was filled with controversial advertising by outside groups. Wilson won 50%-43%. In 2002, the challenger was Richard Romero, a state senator who was elected Senate President in 2001 in a coalition that ousted the Democratic incumbent. Romero at first was rated a top tier challenger by national Democrats, but he suffered from local Democratic divisions; one Democratic state senator called him Benedict Arnold. Although Democrats for the first time convinced the Greens not to run a candidate, Wilson won with her largest majority, 55%-45%. This district could be seriously contested again in 2004.

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DC Office
318 CHOB 20515, 202-225-6316; Fax: 202-225-4975; Web site: www.house.gov/wilson

State Offices
Albuquerque, 505-346-6781.

Committees

• Armed Services (15th of 33 R): Readiness; Strategic Forces.
• Energy & Commerce (15th of 31 R): Energy & Air Quality; Environment & Hazardous Materials; Health; Telecommunications & the Internet.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	5	13	0	13	8	100	53	100	84	86	92
2001	5	--	10	7	--	--	60	91	84	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	28%	--	69%		21%	--	73%
Social	20%	--	69%		39%	--	57%
Foreign	21%	--	74%		44%	--	55%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform N 4. Ban ANWR Development N 5. Faith-Based Charities Y 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts Y		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority Y 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court Y 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Heather Wilson (R)	95,711	55%	$2,728,165
	Richard Romero (D)	77,234	45%	$1,206,962
2002 primary	Heather Wilson (R)	unopposed
2000 general	Heather Wilson (R)	107,296	50%	$2,203,322
	John J. Kelly (D)	92,187	43%	$1,445,633
	Daniel Kerlinsky (Green)	13,656	6%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (48%); 1998 (45%)

2000 presidential
	Gore (D)	106,572	48%
	Bush (R)	103,770	47%
	Other	10,385	5%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the First District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 0
• District Size: 4,720 square miles
• Population in 2000: 606,400; 91.3% urban; 8.7% rural
• Median Household Income: $38,413; 14.0% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 18.9% blue collar; 65.2% white collar; 16.0% gray collar; 15.2% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 48.5% White, 2.3% Black, 1.7% Asian, 2.9% Amer. Indian, 0.1% Hawaiian, 1.6% Two+ races, 0.2% Other, 42.6% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 9.6% German, 7.0% English, 6.9% Irish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.