Group attacks Pearce’s oil ties, votes in radio ad

A national environmental group that helped defeat a veteran GOP member of Congress from California last year is taking aim at five more, including U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce of Southern New Mexico.

It’s further evidence that Pearce is going to face his toughest challenge yet in keeping his seat in 2008.

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund is running the radio advertisement around the Second District of New Mexico as part of a larger campaign called “Heads in the Sand.”

In the ad, which you can hear by clicking here, the group accuses Pearce of having his head “stuck in the sand” and voting repeatedly against legislation that would combat global warming and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.

“Could it be because Steve Pearce has taken $375,000 in campaign cash from big oil while voting for $14 billion in tax breaks for oil companies gouging us with high gas prices?” the ad’s narrator asks. “… America has the know-how to be a world leader in clean renewable energy that will make our economy stronger, create jobs and protect the environment, but Steve Pearce continues to take big oil’s money and say ‘no.’”

The group’s home page for the campaign against the former Hobbs oilman includes other information about Pearce and the campaign, in addition to ways to send a letter to Pearce and donate to keep the ad on the air.

According to the San Diego-area North County Times, the group was instrumental in the 2006 defeat of former U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo of California. In addition to Pearce, the group is now taking aim at GOP reps. Ken Calvert and John Doolittle of California, Rick Renzi of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada.

Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips told the newspaper the congressman has offered several amendments to an energy bill in the past week that would favor clean energy fuel development.

But the group, in a news release announcing the campaign, said Pearce and the others “have a record of anti-conservation, pro-global warming votes and have accepted significant donations, in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars, from big oil and other corporate polluters. … On Wednesday, Reps. Pearce and Heller – both members of the House Natural Resources Committee – voted against legislation to help combat global warming and protect wildlife from its impacts.”

“Americans want action now on global warming,” Defenders Action Fund President Rodger Schlickeisen said in the release. “But extreme anti-environmentalists in Congress, epitomized by these five, continue to have their heads stuck in the sand on energy policy while taking money from big oil and polluters.”

Two Democrats have already jumped into the 2008 race against Pearce – Al Kissling, who Pearce defeated last year, and Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley. State Rep. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces is also considering running.

The Defenders Action Fund isn’t the only national group to have its eyes on Pearce. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the fundraising arm of House Democrats, is eyeing the race.