Former New Mexico Republican Rep. Heather Wilson on Monday formally entered the open Senate race to replace retiring five-term Democrat Jeff Bingaman.

Wilson launched her candidacy armed with endorsements, including that of former Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, but the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee started whacking her hours before she appeared to make her intentions known. The combination suggests that Wilson will be a formidable GOP candidate both in a potential primary and in the general election next year.

"The first thing we have to do is get our financial house in order," she said at a press conference in Albuquerque to announce her candidacy, according to the website, NMPolitics.net. Wilson complained that Washington is clueless when it comes to fiscal issues, which she explained was part of her rationale in launching another Senate bid.

The five-term congresswoman lost a hotly contested Senate primary to Republican Rep. Steve Pearce in 2008 by just three percentage points, but it remains to be seen whether she will draw a primary challenger this cycle. While Pearce is considered to Wilson's right, the race was not a battle between the establishment and the tea party - which did not exist at the time.

Pearce returned to Congress after winning back the seat in 2010 that he vacated in 2008, and it's not clear whether he intends to repeat the process this time. On top of that, recent polling shows that Republican voters in the Land of Enchantment view Wilson favorably.

A survey by Public Policy Polling (D) conducted from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6 of 357 GOP voters in the state found that a 35 percent plurality said Wilson should be the party's nominee in the race to replace Bingaman. Twenty-seven percent picked Gary Johnson, who is exploring a presidential run instead, and 17 percent named Pearce.

In addition, 71 percent said they viewed Wilson favorably and 69 percent had a favorable impression of Pearce, but just 46 percent said the same for Johnson. The poll's margin of error was 5.2 percent.

Although Wilson begins the race with a clear shot at becoming the nominee, it is the general election where she faces an uphill climb.

Early polling shows Democratic Reps. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan, who do not yet have statewide name recognition, leading Wilson and Pearce in general election matchups.

Heinrich issued a statement several days after Bingaman announced his retirement that suggested he is likely to become a candidate, and Lujan also has indicated interest, as have state Auditor Hector Balderas and former Lt. Gov. Diane Denish.

Republicans point out that because Democrats are poised to have a competitive primary with several capable contenders, the GOP may be well positioned to pick up the Southwestern seat even as it leans to the left in presidential election cycles. Democratic strategists in Washington have been clear, however, that Heinrich is their top choice for the nomination, and such public maneuvering may signal that they are trying to clear the field for the second-term congressman.

But while Democrats are making sense of a potentially crowded primary field, they first acted fast on Monday to weaken Wilson right out of the gate. The DSCC blasted out a web video Monday morning that pummeled Wilson for being a Washington insider and poked fun at her for losing to Pearce in the primary three years ago.

National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh laughed off the video and its suggestion that Wilson, who has been out of Congress for two years, is a Beltway insider.

"It's an interesting messaging strategy when your leading candidate is a sitting member of Congress," he said, referring to Heinrich.

If Heinrich and Wilson ultimately go head to head in the general election, they will find themselves in a fierce competition for the voters in Albuquerque. The city takes up the bulk of the small congressional district in the center of the state that Heinrich has represented for the last few years. Wilson was his direct predecessor for the decade before.