In Case You Missed It: Associated Press Profiles Steve Pearce
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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce walked into Charlie's Spic & Span Bakery and Cafe with business cards in hand, a strong handshake and time to listen to every voter.
He heard an earful. Charges of voter fraud. Complaints about the lack of jobs. Anger at corrupt Washington politicians and the federal financial bailout.
Pearce gives them his opinion; he says he'll do what he can to help. He'll even recommend an author - in this case it's Cormac McCarthy, the writer of "No Country for Old Men" who lives in Tesuque, N.M. With kids, the candidate high fives and fist bumps, gives them autographs and poses for photos.
Most encounters end with Pearce saying, "I'd appreciate your vote," over and over again.
Pearce, who represents the 2nd Congressional District in southern New Mexico, is trailing in the race for Senate against Democratic Rep. Tom Udall, who represents northern New Mexico's 3rd District, but he says he's closing the gap.
The representatives are vying to replace Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, New Mexico's longest-serving senator who is retiring this year.
On a recent campaign trip to Las Vegas, Mora and Cleveland - in the heart of Udall territory - Pearce, a pilot in the Vietnam War who flew missions from 1971 through early 1974, rose early to fly himself and his wife, Cynthia, from Albuquerque to Las Vegas for an 8 a.m. radio interview.
He then stopped at Las Vegas small businesses, talked with voters at restaurant tables, prayed with senior citizens, greeted bank employees and approached bar patrons during happy hour. All that before a night of prepping for the next day's televised debate against Udall.
Pearce is a person who will insist a stranger at his table share his breakfast burrito and he credits his wife's advice during the campaign, even as he's spending their 27th wedding anniversary on the road.
He says he enjoys engaging voters one-on-one while campaigning. "You can tell they're all closed up when you walk in. They figure that if you're running for Senate you're probably better than them. That's in their mind and as soon as you shake their hand and smile, they just open up and flower," Pearce said in an interview. "That's the magic of the personal touch."
Pearce prides himself on his straight talk. In a live local radio interview, Pearce called the nation's financial turmoil "dangerous and scary."
He spoke of his distrust of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, his view that the stock market will continue to fall and his concern that even $700 billion in a federal rescue package might not be enough to stabilize the economy. Both Pearce and Udall voted against the package.
"I think there'll be some very deep distress still in Wall Street," Pearce said. "I can't say Wall Street anymore. Wall Street's gone. All the firms that used to be Wall Street are no longer there and that happened in a period of 90 days."
On the bright side, Pearce said he thinks people will return to their faith and family and realize that their faith in their bank accounts was misplaced.
"I look honestly at our problems. I don't try to gloss over them," he told listeners. Pearce also played up his modest small-town roots and business experience. Pearce's father was a sharecropper before the family moved to Hobbs. Pearce successfully ran an oilfield services firm called Lea Fishing Tools, which he and his wife sold in 2003 after he was elected to his first of three terms in Congress.
At nearly every stop, Pearce called for the creation of more value-added agricultural products and more manufacturing jobs. Carlos Lovato, a New Mexico Highlands University employee and rancher, says many people in the economically depressed region barely felt the recent economic turmoil, so talk of job creation garners more support.
"Look at the economics once you leave Santa Fe and head north to Las Vegas. There's nothing happening here," Lovato said. "Even before the stock market fell, how's that going to affect the guy who has 50 cents in the bank? It doesn't matter because he's been having hard times."
Other Republicans interviewed said they liked Pearce's support for gun ownership rights, his opposition to abortion rights and the legalization of gay marriage and his fiscal conservatism.
Pearce's support of tax cuts is what attracted Gloria Muniz of Cleveland. She's a Democrat who's voting for Pearce because she thinks he will oppose taxing the military retirement pay she and her husband need.
"How long has Udall been up here and has he really helped us?" Muniz asked.
Lovato agreed that Udall has forgotten the region that he's represented since 1998.
"What has he done for northern New Mexico? If you look at the history of the northern district, nobody's done anything for it, nobody. That's why it's so depleted," Lovato said.
Pearce acknowledged he's in Udall territory doing damage control. If he can minimize his losses across northern New Mexico, that will help his race overall.
In a talk at Republican Party headquarters in Las Vegas, Pearce encouraged about 30 supporters to get out and talk to their Democratic friends.
Pearce thinks his campaign has been energized by two of three statewide televised debates and by Domenici's taping of a campaign ad for Pearce.
"When Sen. Domenici looks into the camera and says, 'I'm choosing Steve Pearce. I want him to replace me,' it is very powerful," Pearce said.
With Udall ahead by 15 percentage points in an Albuquerque Journal poll earlier this month, Pearce has a big job ahead.
"We've got ground to make up," he said, "but I feel like the last two weeks is when the race is going to be won. I think it's very close."
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