NM-Sen: New Ethical Questions Raised About Steve Pearce

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund just released the following statement, responding to a story in Roll Call (subscription only) that raises serious questions about the ethics of Rep. Steve Pearce. Pearce (NM-02) is running against Rep. Heather Wilson (NM-01) for the Repub nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Pete Domenici.

Albuquerque, N.M – New details of a business transaction between Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) and Key Energy Services have today been exposed by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, shining a light on some questionable ethical behavior on the Congressman’s part and raising some serious questions Pearce needs to answer as he campaigns for Senate.

The article reveals that in 2003 Pearce was entrusted to chair a House natural gas task force, which on August 18, heard the testimony of a Key Energy Services executive. Just six weeks later, Key Energy Services bought Pearce’s oil company, Lea Fishing Tools Inc., for more than twice the amount Pearce had valued it on his financial disclosure forms.

“Pearce has been caught in a glaring and inexcusable conflict of interest”, said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. “There is no way a member of Congress should have been chairing a congressional task force and taking testimony from officials of a corporation that was in the process of buying his company.”

Rep. Pearce sits on the House Natural Resources Committee which has huge regulatory authority over the oil and gas industry.  Key Energy Services had begun the purchase of Pearce’s company in January 2003 and, therefore, knew they were buying a company from a member of Congress who sat on that committee. Pearce ultimately sold his company for $12 million but only $5.2 million was ever disclosed.

“The entire point of financial disclosure forms is to shine a light on exactly these kinds of potential conflicts of interest,” continued Schlickeisen. “Whatever loopholes in House ethics rules Pearce may have exploited, it is clearly in the public interest that he disclose the full details of this transaction and we call on him to do so.”

“These are significant ethical questions that the people of New Mexico deserve answers to if Pearce is to ask for their vote,” added Schlickeisen.  “We’ve seen too much corruption on Capitol Hill in recent years; the people of New Mexico want and deserve something different.”

Questions about Pearce's ethics in relation to the purchase of Lea Fishing Tools by Key Energy were raised last September by the nonpartisan group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). See my previous post. CREW ranked Pearce as one of the top 22 most corrupt members of Congress.

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