Wilson Had Oversight Over House Page Program

Oct. 2, 2006 Contact: Heather Brewer 505-310-5957

Wilson Had Oversight Over Page Program, Did Nothing to Stop Sexual Misconduct

Wilson Named to Page Oversight Committee in 2001;
ABC Says Pages Warned About Rep. Foley in 2001

According to a news release on Rep. Heather Wilson‚s official website, she was appointed in May of 2001 to the House Page Board, the organization that oversees the U.S. House of Representatives‚ page program in which several teenaged boys were participating when disgraced Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) made inappropriate sexual advances toward them.

ABC Nightly News on Sunday reported that as early as 2001, when Wilson was named to the House Page Board, pages were being warned about Foley‚s inappropriate behavior.

“We have another case of Heather Wilson refusing to stand up and ask the tough questions,” said Heather Brewer, spokeswoman for Attorney General Patricia Madrid, Wilson‚s opponent. „In 2001, when Heather Wilson was named to the House Page Board, pages were already being warned about the inappropriate conduct of Rep. Mark Foley. But Heather Wilson did nothing to protect teenage boys from this sexual predator. Voters have a right to know: As a member of the House Page Board, why did Heather Wilson choose to do nothing to protect teenage boys from her colleague, Mark Foley?

Madrid, who has served eight years as New Mexico‚s Attorney General, founded the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, through which she has tracked, prosecuted and put online sexual predators behind bars.

While Patricia Madrid was in New Mexico keeping our children safe from online sexual predators, it appears that Heather Wilson was in Washington, looking the other way as one of her colleagues made inappropriate advances to the children she was charged with protecting. It is time for a change.

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