Yesterday, in New Mexico, Rep. Steve Pearce won the Republican primary for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Pete Domenici.

We named Pearce one of the most corrupt members of Congress in our report, Beyond DeLay.  Here's why:

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM), is a third-term member of Congress representing the second district of New Mexico. Rep. Pearce’s ethics issues stem from his failure to properly report a transaction on his financial disclosure report and from trading legislative assistance for campaign contributions.

Lea Fishing Tools, Inc.

Rep. Pearce was the president of Lea Fishing Tools, Inc. In the fall of 2003, Rep. Pearce sold the company’s assets to Texas-based Key Energy, in exchange for 542,477 shares of common stock, but failed to include the transaction on his 2003 financial disclosure report. In that report Rep. Pearce indicated that he was the president of Trinity Industries, Inc., “F/K/A Lea Fishing Tools, Inc.,” and that he held between $5 and $25 million of stock in the company. Given that all of Lea Fishing Tools’ assets were transferred to Key Energy, it appears that Trinity Industries may be a holding company for the Key Energy stock, but this is unclear.

After selling Lea Fishing Tools’ assets to Key Energy, Rep. Pearce was required to report the sale on his financial disclosure form as a transaction, but he failed to do so. By failing to list the sale, Rep. Pearce appears to have violated the Ethics in Government Act.

Otero Mesa

Rep. Pearce has been a consistent and strong advocate of drilling in Otero Mesa, New Mexico despite environmentalists and the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) assertion that only a minuscule amount of oil and natural gas lie beneath the grasslands. Rep. Pearce, however, contends that drilling in the area would keep natural gas prices level and create jobs thereby stimulating the state’s economy. Initially, the BLM opposed opening the area arguing that drilling would both directly and indirectly destruct the habitat for wildlife. In 2000, however, BLM reversed its decision and proposed a plan that would open nearly 1.4 million acres to drilling. The BLM turnaround coincided with the largest lease holder in the Otero Mesa, Yates Petroleum, donating over $230,000 to the GOP over the last three election cycles.

Yates Petroleum also has been the single largest donor to Rep. Pearce’s campaign committees since 2002 with $32,490 in donations. Individually, members of the Yates family have contributed $78,379.99 to Rep. Pearce since he first ran for office in 2002.

If Rep. Pearce advocated opening up Otero Mesa to drilling in exchange for campaign contributions, he may have violated the bribery statute or accepted illegal gratuities.

Tomorrow, New Mexico Republicans will choose their nominee in the Senate race to replace retiring Pete Domenici:

Just two days before the primary in New Mexico, Rep. Steve Pearce is leading Rep. Heather A. Wilson in the battle for the Republican nomination to replace Republican Sen. Pete V. Domenici .

An Albuquerque Journal poll released Sunday showed Pearce with 45 percent support and Wilson with 39 percent. Sixteen percent of respondents were undecided and the margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Domenici on Friday finally emerged from the background and threw his support behind Wilson, his longtime protegee, but analysts wonder if it came too late to give her much bounce.

We want to point out that all three of these New Mexico politicos, Domenici, Pearce and Wilson, made CREW's list of most corrupt members of Congress in our report, Beyond DeLay.

Yesterday, we noted the reports that Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) is planning to run for the U.S. Senate being vacated by Pete Domenici.  Actually, he's running for the Republican nomination against Rep. Heather Wilson.

Last month, CREW named Pearce one of the most corrupt members of Congress is our report, Beyond DeLay.  Here's why:

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM), is a third-term member of Congress representing the second district of New Mexico. Rep. Pearce’s ethics issues stem from his failure to properly report a transaction on his financial disclosure report and from trading legislative assistance for campaign contributions.

Lea Fishing Tools, Inc.

Rep. Pearce was the president of Lea Fishing Tools, Inc. In the fall of 2003, Rep. Pearce sold the company’s assets to Texas-based Key Energy, in exchange for 542,477 shares of common stock, but failed to include the transaction on his 2003 financial disclosure report. In that report Rep. Pearce indicated that he was the president of Trinity Industries, Inc., “F/K/A Lea Fishing Tools, Inc.,” and that he held between $5 and $25 million of stock in the company. Given that all of Lea Fishing Tools’ assets were transferred to Key Energy, it appears that Trinity Industries may be a holding company for the Key Energy stock, but this is unclear.

After selling Lea Fishing Tools’ assets to Key Energy, Rep. Pearce was required to report the sale on his financial disclosure form as a transaction, but he failed to do so. By failing to list the sale, Rep. Pearce appears to have violated the Ethics in Government Act.

Otero Mesa

Rep. Pearce has been a consistent and strong advocate of drilling in Otero Mesa, New Mexico despite environmentalists and the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) assertion that only a minuscule amount of oil and natural gas lie beneath the grasslands. Rep. Pearce, however, contends that drilling in the area would keep natural gas prices level and create jobs thereby stimulating the state’s economy. Initially, the BLM opposed opening the area arguing that drilling would both directly and indirectly destruct the habitat for wildlife. In 2000, however, BLM reversed its decision and proposed a plan that would open nearly 1.4 million acres to drilling. The BLM turnaround coincided with the largest lease holder in the Otero Mesa, Yates Petroleum, donating over $230,000 to the GOP over the last three election cycles.

Yates Petroleum also has been the single largest donor to Rep. Pearce’s campaign committees since 2002 with $32,490 in donations. Individually, members of the Yates family have contributed $78,379.99 to Rep. Pearce since he first ran for office in 2002.

If Rep. Pearce advocated opening up Otero Mesa to drilling in exchange for campaign contributions, he may have violated the bribery statute or accepted illegal gratuities.

News from the Politico is that Rep. Steve Pearce is planning to run for the GOP Senate nomination in New Mexico:

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) will be announcing that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) tomorrow, according to a source familiar with the congressman’s intentions.

He will be sending out a statement to friends and supporters, but will not be making a formal announcement for another couple of weeks.

His decision to run also opens up another House seat, which Democrats view as winnable. (The district is solidly Republican, giving President Bush 58 percent of the vote in 2004.)

His entrance in the race sets up a highly competitive Senate primary between two of the leading Republicans in the state. The primary is poised to pit the moderate and conservative wings of the party against each other.

Rep. Pearce was named one of the most corrupt members of Congress in CREW's report, Beyond DeLay.  His opponent in the GOP primary, Rep. Heather Wilson (R), also earned that designation as did the current holder of the seat, Pete Domenici (R).

Besides California and Alaska, New Mexico was also a major contributor to this year's "Beyond DeLay."  Three of the state's five member delegation were named to our list of the most corrupt members of Congress as the Santa Fe New Mexican reports:

Corruption list: The three Republican members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation made a nonprofit organization’s list of what it considers the 22 most corrupt members of Congress.

U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici and U.S. Reps. Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce were included in the third annual “Beyond DeLay” report by a Washington, D.C., group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW.

Domenici and Wilson were included for making phone calls to former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias — calls that Iglesias interpreted as pressure to bring corruption charges against a prominent Democrat, former state Sen. Manny Aragon of Albuquerque, before the 2006 election. This allegedly would have helped Wilson in her close re-election contest with Madrid. (Aragon eventually was charged, earlier this year, with several felony counts.) Both Domenici and Wilson repeatedly have denied they tried to pressure Iglesias.

CREW earlier this year filed complaints against Domenici and Wilson over the Iglesias matter.

As for Pearce, CREW alleges the congressman from Southern New Mexico failed to report the 2003 sale of the assets of Lea Fishing Tools Inc., of which he was president, on his financial disclosure statements.

CREW also criticized Pearce for backing a plan to open Southern New Mexico’s Otero Mesa to oil-and-gas drilling while taking more than $78,000 in campaign contributions from the Yates family — which is involved in the oil business and traditionally is a big GOP contributor in the state.

A Pearce spokesman released a statement that said: “They don’t have their facts correct. Rep. Pearce filed an accurate financial disclosure statement and all of Mr. Pearce’s assets and transactions were correctly reported as law required. There has been no violation of the Ethics in Government Act and Mr. Pearce stands by the documents on record. ... It is appalling that a group which claims to promote ethics and accountability would publish outright lies.”