{"id":10676,"date":"2009-12-28T21:29:57","date_gmt":"2009-12-29T04:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10676"},"modified":"2009-12-30T23:00:23","modified_gmt":"2009-12-31T06:00:23","slug":"teague-divesting-himself-of-business-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/teague-divesting-himself-of-business-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"Teague divesting himself of business interests"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

\"U.S.<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

10th wealthiest member of Congress giving up a large chunk of his personal fortune \u2018to focus on serving his constituents\u2019<\/h4>\n

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague<\/a> is divesting himself of all interests in three oil companies that have helped make him the 10th wealthiest<\/a> member of Congress.<\/p>\n

Teague, a Democrat who represents New Mexico\u2019s 2nd Congressional District, is divesting himself of interests in Teaco Drilling<\/a>, Eunice Well Servicing Co.<\/a> and ABC Tool Rental Co.<\/a>, according to a news release from the new company under which those businesses will be formed, Cavaloz Energy Inc.<\/p>\n

The companies will be taken over by Teague\u2019s son, Troy Teague, according to a news release from Cavaloz.<\/p>\n

The three companies currently exist under the parent corporation Teaco Energy Services<\/a>. On an annual financial disclosure form<\/a> he filed earlier this year, Teague listed the value of his interests in that corporation as being almost $40 million.<\/p>\n

Teague spokeswoman Sara Schreiber didn\u2019t say what percentage of that $40 million Teague is giving up, but did say he has other assets and is \u201ckeeping an interest in other companies.\u201d America Supply LLC<\/a> is another company listed in Teaco Energy\u2019s Web site as being part of the corporation, and it\u2019s a company in which Teague is giving up his interests.<\/p>\n

Did cap-and-trade vote play a role?<\/h3>\n

Teague\u2019s companies all serve the oil and gas industry, and many in that industry have been angry at the congressman since he played an instrumental role<\/a> earlier this year in the House\u2019s passage of cap-and-trade legislation.<\/p>\n

Schreiber didn\u2019t directly answer a question about whether that anger over Teague\u2019s vote has harmed his businesses. She instead responded with this statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, over the past few years our nation\u2019s economy has suffered some of the hardest times since the Great Depression. During that time, many businesses throughout the nation have suffered, including some businesses in southeast New Mexico — in fact I know at least one oil and gas service company in the area had to shut their doors.\u00a0As a small businessman in the oil and gas industry for the past 38 years, Congressman Teague is familiar with the economic ups and downs of the industry.\u00a0\u201c<\/p>\n

Teague is being challenged next year by his predecessor in office, Steve Pearce<\/a>, a Republican and, like Teague, and oilman from Hobbs. Pearce\u2019s campaign declined to comment, but Joanna Burgos, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee<\/a>, questioned whether there\u2019s a correlation between Teague\u2019s cap-and-trade vote and his move to divest himself of interests in the businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy change the name of the company?\u201d Burgos asked. \u201cSince the Teague name has become a bad word in New Mexico, is Teague\u2019s abysmal voting record having such a drastically negative effect on his business that he feels compelled to separate his name from the company\u2019s?\u201d<\/p>\n

Teague also recently voted to extend the inheritance tax<\/a> and cancel a one-year repeal, and Burgos questioned whether \u201che was hypocritically avoiding the inheritance tax that he\u2026 voted to impose upon all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news release from Cavaloz states that Teague\u2019s motive is \u201cto focus on serving his constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teague not ruling out self-financing for re-election bid<\/h3>\n

The race between Teague and Pearce is one of the hottest in the nation. Many expect both men to self-finance their campaigns. Teague spent $1.5 million of his own money when running for office in 2008.<\/p>\n

Schreiber said divesting himself of the business interests won\u2019t affect Teague\u2019s ability to compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongressman Teague has not wasted any time fundraising for his reelection bid. In fact, according to a recent Congress Daily edition, he had the most cash on hand of any Democratic toss-up contender, with $757,377 cash on hand,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

What about contributing his own funds to his re-election campaign?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is not ruling anything out,\u201d Schreiber said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Harry Teague is divesting himself of all interests in three oil companies that have helped make him the 10th wealthiest member of Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,116],"class_list":["post-10676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}