ALBUQUERQUE--

KUNM - Congresswomen Heather Wilson now has the honor of being one of the so-called "Dirty Dozen," a campaign run by the League of Conservation Voters, or LCV. The "Dirty Dozen" is a list of politicians with bad environmental voting records. The President of LCV, Deb Callahan, isn’t impressed with Wilson’s record.

Deb Callahan - To get to know Heather Wilson, the real Heather Wilson, voters have to look at the record and beyond her rhetoric to just see who Wilson is representing, because it certainly hasn’t been, we would argue, the people of New Mexico. When it comes to protecting the environment, Heather Wilson’s policies are the opposite of New Mexico’s priorities. Wilson has consistently voted for bad proposals and against good ones.

KUNM - According to Callahan, Wilson has a long record of voting in favor of initiatives directly damaging the environment.

Callahan - Wilson supported taxpayer subsidies for the uranium industry. She even sponsored a proposal to allow a mining technique that injects chemicals into New Mexico’s groundwater to get at uranium. A plan described by one expert as "toxic soup". She voted to allow unlimited mining waste dumping on public lands and voted to weaken laws to make mining companies clean up their own pollution.

Callahan - I suspect the Wilson campaign might try to paint it as partisan. I have two co-chairs. One is a Republican, Teddy Roosevelt IV, who is a very prominent Republican conservationist. Therefore, it has Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike. We believe very strongly that you need friends on every side of the aisle when it comes to these environmental issues. Historically, this has been a strongly bipartisan issue. We want to get back to those days. And so we target Democrats and Republicans for defeat, as well targeting Republicans and Democrats for help. We have not yet announced a "Dirty Dozen" Democrat, but I assure you that will be done in a very short time.

KUNM - LCV plans to launch campaign ads on Wilson’s environmental record in the near future. LCV members have invested almost $8 million to defeat 23 of the "Dirty Dozen's" 37 targets, since 1996.

[Excerpt - KUNM-AM]