Democratic challenger Patricia Madrid is running against U.S. Representative Heather Wilson in the state of New Mexico.
A battle between two tough public servants, this race has followed the party playbooks to the letter. Wilson, a centrist Rhodes scholar and former National Security Council member, has run a non-stop stream of ads calling her opponent weak on law enforcement and national security and a liberal who will raise taxes. Madrid, New Mexico's attorney general and a former district judge, has relentlessly tied Wilson to President George W. Bush in ads and campaign events, finishing off the season with a TV spot with the tagline, "Heather Wilson and George Bush: Desperate to Hide the Truth." The district, which includes Albuquerque, has always been closely divided. An election-eve poll found Madrid surging to a four-point lead, though still within the margin of error. Wilson released her own poll showing herself up by two points. Both showed 6% of voters still making up their minds just a week before the election.
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