Senate rivals tussle over cuts to Los Alamos in Ryan budget

A Democrat running for an open U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico is trying to tie his Republican opponent to the budget plan of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and the cuts it would make to national laboratories. 

Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) says electing former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) would be akin to green-lighting Ryan's plan, which his campaign said would slash funding for New Mexico's Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory by 10 and 17 percent, respectively.

The Heinrich campaign claimed Wilson has given her "implicit" support to the plan of Ryan, who has become a national political figure as Mitt Romney's running mate.

“Heather Wilson has made it clear that she would be a rubber stamp for the Romney-Ryan budget that ends Medicare as we know it and imposes deep cuts to New Mexico’s national laboratories,” Whitney Potter, a spokeswoman for the Heinrich campaign, said in a statement Tuesday.

That statement referenced Romney’s scheduled visit to New Mexico on Thursday. Romney said he plans to lay out a “comprehensive energy plan” during a fundraiser there.

But Wilson told The Hill on Tuesday that she has “been very clear that I have concerns about the budget Congressman Ryan proposed 18 months ago,” and voted against a version of it while serving in Congress in 2007.

"If I oppose something, that's now recorded as 'implicit'?" Wilson said. 

“Had I been in the Senate and on the Budget Committee and the Ryan budget came over, I would have worked on getting an alternative,” Wilson added, elaborating that she has worries about what the Ryan plan would do to Medicare. 

The New Mexico Senate race has attracted plenty of attention from environmental and energy groups, especially since it would fill the seat left vacant by retiring Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

As of late July, a coalition of green groups had spent $1.5 million in ads attacking Wilson for her energy and environmental positions. That matched spending from GOP-affiliated groups for ads against Heinrich.

Wilson said that the Heinrich campaign’s attempt to link her to the Ryan budget is meant to hide the Democrat’s lackluster history of supporting the state’s national labs.

She said the Democratic congressman fails to understand the value the laboratories provide, such as nuclear deterrence. The backing he has received from environmental groups further undermines his ability to be a staunch advocate for the labs, she said.

“Congressman Heinrich knows he is very vulnerable when it comes to support for our labs and our military bases,” Wilson said. “So he’ll say anything. Really, it’s desperation.”