Patricia Madrid (NM-1)
Patricia Madrid
Candidate for Congress
New Mexico (NM-1)
View All Your Campaigns
Go to: Patricia Madrid for Congress!
Help WesPAC Help Democrats Win!
Contribute to Patricia Madrid!
"The people of New Mexico deserve someone in Congress who will support the men and women in uniform by demanding from the White House a strategy for success in Iraq. Patricia Madrid has made a career of standing up for people and demanding answers to difficult questions. She's just the kind of leader we need on Capitol Hill and I am proud to endorse her candidacy. "
~ Wes Clark
10-4-06: Washington Post: Results in Key House Races
Patricia Madrid
Candidate for Congress
New Mexico (NM-1)
View All Your Campaigns
Go to: Patricia Madrid for Congress!
Help WesPAC Help Democrats Win!
Contribute to Patricia Madrid!
Results in Key House Races: Reuters Poll
10/4/06 | Washington Post
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats lead Republicans in 11 of 15 crucial races in the November 7 election to decide which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.
President George W. Bush's Republicans now hold a 15-seat advantage over Democrats. The polls of at least 500 likely voters in each district have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Here is a summary of the results in each race polled:
...
NEW MEXICO 1 - Five-term Republican Rep. Heather Wilson trails Democrat Patricia Madrid 50-40 percent in this Albuquerque-based swing district.
...
About Patricia Madrid
Patricia Madrid
Candidate for Congress
New Mexico (NM-1)
View All Your Campaigns
Go to: Patricia Madrid for Congress!
Help WesPAC Help Democrats Win!
Contribute to Patricia Madrid!
Patricia Madrid won her first campaign in 1978 when she became the first woman elected to sit as a district court judge in New Mexico. In 1998, she became the first woman elected Attorney General of the State of New Mexico, and in 2002 she was reelected in a landslide. She has been married to L. Michael Messina, an Albuquerque lawyer, for over thirty years, and has a son, Giancarlo, who graduated from the University of New Mexico and works in Washington DC.
Patricia Madrid established the Violence Against Women Unit to prosecute sex crimes and combat domestic violence and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) to prosecute sexual predators. Recently, ICAC helped secure the arrest and nine year sentencing of a habitual Internet child predator. Patricia Madrid has successfully prosecuted the death penalty case against Terry Clark, a convicted child rapist and murderer.
Patricia Madrid created a website that allows anyone to compare the prices of drugs in communities across New Mexico; this is especially helpful to senior citizens who often must budget a limited, fixed income. Madrid works to make sure that senior citizens relying on Medicare and Medicaid are receiving proper medical care and are not victims of fraud and exploitation.
Patricia Madrid has prosecuted violators of New Mexico's clean air and water laws. Madrid stopped the shipment of hundreds of thousands of used tires into New Mexico, preventing the creation of a toxic wasteland. Madrid has ensured that New Mexico's public lands remain in the hands of its citizens and are not transferred to private individuals. Madrid has developed a team of experts to protect against any attempts by outsiders to appropriate New Mexico's ground and surface waters.
Through suits against WorldCom, Enron, and other companies guilty of defrauding investors, Patricia Madrid has brought funds into the state and protected the solvency of New Mexico-based pension-investment programs, including the Public Employee Retirement Association's retirement plan.
General Wes Clark @ Bataan Park in NM for Patricia Madrid
| General Wes Clark @ Bataan Park, Albuquerque, NM for Patricia Madrid
April 26, 2006
General Clark and NM Veterans back Patricia Madrid Two Generals -- retired four star General Wes Clark, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, and Attorney General Patricia Madrid -- are backed by a strong showing of veterans and members of military families. |
 |
 to listen to remarks from Gen. Clark and Patricia Madrid on incumbent Representative Heather Wilson's failure to hold the Bush Administration accountable for the flawed intelligence and failed leadership that took the United States to war in Iraq. |
Madrid and Clark take questions from the media
Calling on Heather Wilson to ask the tough questions of the Republican Administration about the war in Iraq, Attorney General Madrid and retired General Wes Clark take questions from members of the media.
Madrid Receives Endorsement from League of Conservation Voters
Patricia Madrid
Candidate for Congress
New Mexico (NM-1)
View All Your Campaigns
Go to: Patricia Madrid for Congress!
Help WesPAC Help Democrats Win!
Contribute to Patricia Madrid!
Madrid Receives Endorsement from League of Conservation Voters
AG’s Strong Environmental Record Stark Contrast to Wilson
Attorney General Patricia Madrid has received the endorsement of the League of Conservation voters in her bid to become the next congresswoman to represent New Mexico’s First Congressional District.
“New Mexico’s First Congressional District needs real, independent and conservation-minded leadership, not just a rubber stamp for George Bush and Dick Cheney’s failed policies that do nothing to keep our air, land and water clean,” said LCV Southwest Field Campaign Manager Maggie Toulouse. “New Mexicans deserve a true leader like Patricia Madrid representing our interests in Washington.”
Madrid, who has served eight years as New Mexico’s Attorney General, has a long record of standing up to the federal government to protect the state’s environment. As Attorney General, Madrid joined 14 other attorneys general and sued the Bush Administration to demand enforcement of the Clean Air Act for the benefit of New Mexicans. Madrid and her colleagues won. Madrid also stood up to the Bush Administration to fight George Bush’s repeal of the “roadless rule” that would protect national forests from damaging development. Madrid further sued the federal government to stop drilling on Otero Mesa and is prepared to go to court again to stop development of the Valle Vidal. She also hired the first full-time water-law attorney to work in the attorney general’s office.
“The people of New Mexico know my record,” Madrid said. “I am not afraid to stand up to big oil companies or to George Bush to protect our environment. My opponent, however, has a much different record.” During her time in office, Wilson twice introduced uranium mining legislation that experts say turns groundwater into “Toxic Soup.”
She voted against boosting the Clean Water Fund by more than $242 million. She also voted to allow oil and gas drilling in National Monuments. The League of Conservation Voters gave her a 10 percent rating in 2003 and the Sierra Club gave her a 13 percent.
“New Mexicans are ready for a change,” Madrid said. “It is time we had an independent voice in Washington making sure the needs of New Mexico’s environment are met.”
Madrid: Wilson failed to protect pages
Patricia Madrid
Candidate for Congress
New Mexico (NM-1)
View All Your Campaigns
Go to: Patricia Madrid for Congress!
Help WesPAC Help Democrats Win!
Contribute to Patricia Madrid!
Madrid: Wilson failed to protect pages
James W. Brosnan/Tribune Reporter
Tuesday, October 3, 2006 | Albuquerque Tribune
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson's service on the seemingly innocuous House Page Board has brought the Mark Foley scandal into the Albuquerque Republican's hotly contested race for re-election.
Wilson's Democratic opponent, Attorney General Patricia Madrid, charged Monday that Wilson failed to protect the pages from a sexual predator when she was one of five members of the board from 2001-04.
"This board was specifically charged with taking care of the pages," Madrid said.
Foley, a Republican representative from Florida, resigned last week when it was revealed that in 2003 he wrote e-mails to a former House page that described sex acts. It was also reported that House Republican leaders told Foley to stop e-mailing another former House page in 2005 after Foley asked for the teen's photograph.
Wilson campaign manager Enrique Carlos Knell said Wilson did not learn of Foley's misconduct with former House pages until Friday and then immediately called for Foley's criminal prosecution.
"Patsy Madrid's charges go well over the top and don't have any credibility, and she should be ashamed of herself even suggesting such a malicious thing," Knell said.
Madrid told The Tribune: "I don't know what she knew or didn't know (about Foley,) but she didn't do her job."
Madrid said it was known that Foley was close to the pages. She noted Foley gave a speech to the House pages in 2002 in which he talked about taking a page out to dinner.
Knell said Wilson was not present for Foley's speech.
The Madrid campaign was responding to an ABC News report that House pages were "warned" about Foley as early as 2001, which was also the first year of Wilson's term on the page board.
Matthew Loraditch, the president of the House Page Alumni Association, said that when he was a page in 2001 and 2002, supervisors in the House Clerk's Office told pages about Foley. "Don't get too wrapped up in him being too nice to you and all that kind of stuff," Loraditch said he was told.
But in subsequent statements, Loraditch took the position that this fell short of a warning to avoid the Florida legislator.
In an interview, Loraditch told The Tribune: "The supervisors I worked with, if any of them had been told, it would have been dealt with at the time promptly."
Loraditch also said all of the pages who described questionable contacts from Foley said those contacts came after they had left the program.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, on Monday said he and the House Page Board were told that the most recent complaint was only about an "overly friendly" communication and the page's family did not want to lodge a complaint.
The House Page Board was created after a scandal in 1983 in which two members of Congress were censured after admitting having sexual relations with pages. The board includes two members of the majority party, one member from the minority, the clerk of the House and the Senate sergeant at arms.
The failure of oversight has been a theme in both sides of the Wilson-Madrid race.
Wilson has run ads accusing Madrid of failing to investigate corruption in the office of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil, who was acquitted of all but one charge Saturday. Madrid said she never learned of the allegations until the federal charges were unveiled.
Madrid's campaign ads charge that Wilson failed to question the Bush administration about prewar intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Wilson has said she did ask tough questions in classified briefings but was convinced that Iraq did have an active biological weapons program.
During the weekend, Wilson said she would donate to three local charities $8,000 her campaign has received over the years in contributions from Foley's political action committee. She also called for a criminal investigation of Foley's conduct.
The House has 72 pages, 48 selected by Republicans and 24 selected by Democrats from applications submitted by high school juniors. The Senate has 30 pages, 18 selected by the Republicans and 12 by the Democrats.
Pages spend most of their time running errands and carrying messages.
They work for the House Clerk's Office or the Senate sergeant at arms, not directly for congressmen, which makes Foley's close association with the pages so unusual.
Aides in the New Mexico delegation say the only time their bosses have any personal contact with a page is to pose for a photo when the page graduates from the program or to write one a letter of recommendation to a college.
How Republican leaders handled the Foley matter is becoming an issue, too.
Rep. Tom Udall, a Santa Fe Democrat, believes Republican leaders "tried to protect Foley and not the children at risk," said his spokeswoman, Marissa Padilla.
David Host, spokesman for Rep. Steve Pearce, a Hobbs Republican, said the congressman believes the leadership took far stronger action than in the 1983 scandal when Rep. Gerry Studds, a Massachusetts Democrat, was allowed to remain in the House.
"When the House Republican leadership learned about the hideously obscene instant messages that former Rep. Foley had sent, they informed him they would expel him from the House. He resigned within hours," Host said.
Patricia Madrid: In The News - "Politically Charged"
Patricia Madrid
Candidate for Congress
New Mexico (NM-1)
Politically Charged
by Patricia Guadalupe
April 2006 | Hispanic Business Journal
New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid is a woman of firsts.
She is the first Hispanic to hold her state's top elected executive law enforcement position, even though New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic residents of any state, at 42.1 percent of the population. And before that she was the first woman to be elected as a district court judge in New Mexico.
She's also accustomed to being aggressive, going for a win.
"You have to be very strong," she comments, speaking to other women. "Women, especially Latinas, are very concerned about people liking them, and what you look like, and that you're popular and you please people. Well, in politics you just have to learn to be a lot tougher than that. I learned that early on. I was on the debate team in high school and then I went to law school. It wasn't about being liked, it was about winning, about arguing my case, about being an advocate."
At The Table
"You get into politics because you care about the issues and you want to make a difference," she adds, "and you have to be at the table to do that."
As attorney general, Ms. Madrid has been at the head of the table: the state's head legal representative, prosecutor, and defender. She is responsible for the state's Department of Justice, overseeing 10 "divisions" responsible for legal activities in the interest of the state and its people ranging from criminal appeals, consumer protection, and prosecutions/investigations to civil law enforcement and protection of state water quality. In this capacity she manages 150 other attorneys and legal services staff and a $12 million budget.
Ms. Madrid also established the state's first Crime Victim's Services Unit, which provides support to crime victims and their families both in trial court and through the lengthy appeals process; the first Violence Against Women Unit; the first Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force; and the first Capital Litigation Unit. This unit is composed of highly skilled district attorneys who augment local district attorneys in prosecuting capital crimes and crimes against children.
Initiatives she has advocated to protect the financial interests of the state and its citizens address, for example, the prosecution of companies that have mismanaged some of the state's $12 billion in invested funds, and the investigation and prosecution of entities found guilty of predatory lending practices and exorbitant fees on payday loans and car loans.
Now a Run for Congress
Ms. Madrid could be poised for another first: the first-ever Hispanic woman to be a member of Congress from the state of New Mexico. Not to mention the first Hispanic in 10 years to be sent by her district to the U.S. House of Representatives.
She announced in fall 2005 that she is running as a Democrat to try to unseat four-term incumbent Republican Rep. Heather Wilson. Under state law, Ms. Madrid is prevented from seeking another term as attorney general, and told Hispanic Business she wanted to continue working on the issues that matter to her.
"I decided to take on the Republican incumbent, because I am just very concerned about my country. The issues that I care about and have worked on as attorney general, you keep thinking that it's going to get better and it's not," Ms. Madrid says. "We're taking major steps backward, and I think it's time for a change in Washington. I would have voted differently on some issues, including the Medicare drug prescription program and Iraq. You see that one party controls the White House, the Congress, and there are no checks and balances, and you see the results in what is going on in our government today."
Political observers in New Mexico say Ms. Madrid should not be written off, even though Rep. Wilson has successfully warded off previous challenges from other Hispanics in the state.
"Being attorney general is not one of the most glamorous jobs in the state, yet she has very high name recognition and was able not only to get elected but to get re-elected statewide," comments Magdaleno Manzanárez, an associate professor of political science at Western New Mexico University. "And there really isn't anything negative on her. This is the strongest opposition Congresswoman Heather Wilson has ever faced, and while Wilson has more money right now, I think it's pretty significant that though Madrid announced her candidacy just last October, she is already running neck-and-neck with her."
Both major parties consider this one of the most competitive races in the 2006 congressional election. The Capitol Hill publication Roll Call describes Ms. Madrid as "a tough, steely campaigner," adding nonetheless that Ms. Wilson, the first female graduate of the Air Force Academy to serve in the U.S. Congress, is a formidable fundraiser who "seems to connect" with her district even though most voters identify themselves as Democratic.
Photo Finish Projected
At this point the political campaign Web site www.electionprojection.com predicts a possible squeaker win for Ms. Madrid.
The key, say political observers, is for Ms. Madrid to exploit President Bush's low approval numbers.
"If Madrid is able to tie Wilson to the Republican Party and President Bush and voter dissatisfaction, she may be successful," says Mr. Manzanárez.
And for her part, Ms. Madrid is hoping her views on domestic issues combined with her law-and-order image will help her with voters on both sides of the aisle.
"She will bring to Congress a wealth of experience and a proven track record of outstanding service to the people of New Mexico," offers Rep. Hilda Solís (D-Calif.). "Her track record leaves no doubt that she will be an outspoken champion for our nation's fast-growing Latino community and the issues most important to them, including education, healthcare, and small businesses. She will be a strong addition to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has worked hard to expand opportunities for Hispanics in corporate America."
Madrid, Wesley Clark Call on Wilson to Ask Tough Questions About Iraq War
Madrid, Wesley Clark Call on Wilson to Ask Tough Questions About Iraq War
AG Joins Gen. Clark in Calling for Rumsfeld Resignation
April 26, 2006
Albuquerque -- Attorney General Patricia Madrid and General Wesley Clark stood with nearly two dozen Albuquerque veterans in Bataan Memorial Park on Wednesday to call on incumbent Representative Heather Wilson to finally start asking the tough questions to hold the Bush Administration accountable for the flawed intelligence and failed leadership that took the United States to war in Iraq,
Madrid also officially joined Clark in calling for Rumsfeld to resign.
“I have serious concerns about the way Donald Rumsfeld has conducted this war,” Madrid said. “I believe strongly that it is time for him to resign and for new leadership to come on board.”
Madrid further expressed deep concern about the casualties of the war.
“This war has cost us too much -- 2,390 American lives,” Madrid said. “Further, more than 17,000 young men and women have been wounded. This state has buried 17 of its own children. It is time to bring the
troops home.”