New Mexico’s Rep. Steve Pearce spreading lies and hysteria

Long time wildlife foe, Pearce spreading lies about protecting lizard and jobs-

Politics and reality clash in New Mexico. Posted on May 1, 2011 by Bob Berwyn. Summit County Citizens Voice.

Although he was out of office for a couple years, newly elected Pearce (R-US Rep)  is up to his old tricks, made meaner for these lean times.

Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says protecting the lizard will cost no jobs, Pearce says it will have a big effect.

My view is these people (Republican office-holders like Pearce) can play around with causing a default on the national debt without worrying about jobs, but they won’t let this get past them  — a lizard versus oil jobs is just too good for rabble rousing to let it pass.

Kiren Suckling executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity called, “Congressman Pearce’s campaign of misinformation and hysteria is a threat to democracy.” A healthy democracy requires good information and trustworthy politicians. When people like Pearce abuse their positions of power and promote hysteria with fear mongering, they undermine the foundation of democracy and civil society.” This is from “Group Calls on New Mexico Congressman to Recant False Statements About Dunes Sagebrush Lizard. News Release.

Comments

  1. Maska Avatar
    Maska

    Unfortunately, Pearce is my Congress critter. He has never met any conservation measure that he likes, whether it’s protecting wilderness, controlling rampant ATV abuse on public lands, protecting lizards, reintroducing Mexican gray wolves, supporting sensible energy policy…you name it. His lifetime League of Conservation Voters score is 4%.

    He needs to go, but with pots of money from oil and gas interests, and a good chunk of his district in “Little Texas,” the oil patch in southeastern New Mexico, it will take a candidate who walks on water and has an enormous war chest to have a chance. Don’t hold your breath.

    1. william huard Avatar
      william huard

      He’s been voted out of office before, it can happen again. It’s curious Pearce never ran on his committment to defund the Mexican Wolf program. Don’t polls show well over 70% of people in NM want wolves?

      1. jon Avatar
        jon

        This guy really seems to have it in for wildlife.

      2. Maska Avatar
        Maska

        69% of New Mexicans in a 2008 poll by Research and Polling, Inc, of Albuquerque either strongly or somewhat supported wolf reintroduction.

        Pearce was not voted out of his 2nd district office. He elected to run for the Senate in 2008, rather than seek re-election. He was defeated in his Senate race against Tom Udall.

        The 2nd district seat went narrowly for a conservative Democrat, Harry Teague, who made a lot of money in the oilfield services business. Teague benefitted from the Obama coattails, as well as from a pretty good Democratic turnout. He served one term, with a moderate/conservative record, but lost his re-election bid to Pearce.

      3. jon Avatar
        jon

        We all know the people who don’t want wolves in NM. These are the same exact people who don’t want them in the northern rockies either. Maska, you familiar with a guy by the name of Tom Klumker?

      4. Maska Avatar
        Maska

        Jon:

        Yes, I’ve been at meetings where Klumker was present.

      5. jon Avatar
        jon

        Tom Klumker wants gray wolves removed from NM. People like him and Pearce are a real threat to gray wolf recovery in NM.

  2. Jerry Black Avatar
    Jerry Black

    I was in Las Cruces at the beginning of his campaign and overheard a radio interview where he “was having breakfast with his family and they received a message from god telling him to run again for office”…….YUP!! He didn’t mention that god had ties to the oil and gas industry.

    1. william huard Avatar
      william huard

      One man’s message from God is another man’s delusion.

  3. Alan Gregory Avatar

    So much for the oath of office, which says something about protecting one’s heritage, as in “natural” heritage.

  4. mikarooni Avatar
    mikarooni

    Steve is a very, very, nasty, extremely nasty, can’t get any nastier person. He won’t hesitate to step on anybody, even other Republicans, who get in his way or even just for fun. I know we all like to think politicians are all bad and all alike; but, Steve truly is as close to Jeffrey Dahmer as any politician I’ve ever encountered. He doesn’t just HAVE yellow dirt down in his soul; his soul IS yellow dirt.

  5. Rob Sisson Avatar

    Just heard him on The Diane Rehm Show (about the ESA), and he repeated the same lines. As a Republican, I’m so sad that so many (almost all) Republicans in office are blinded by personal ambition and the hunger for power, and refuse to consider the common good.

    1. Daniel Berg Avatar
      Daniel Berg

      This is one of the things that makes it difficult to support republicans at this point in time. Some of these characters seem to oppose environmental issues just for the sake of doing it. When will we have a backlash against loud-mouthed fools at the ballot box?

    2. Ralph Maughan Avatar

      My view is the Republican Party has been taken over, and by people who are not really conservatives as the word has been used over the years.

      This doubly unfortunate because so many are disillusioned by the Democrats.

  6. Maska Avatar
    Maska

    My Congress critter at work:

    1. william huard Avatar
      william huard

      You gotta love that shitbagger logic…….After watching that disturbing video, I remember when Julie McDonald altered scientific evidence in order to not list a sage grouse species. Pearce has that same arrogant, pompous attitude, and his contempt for science and environmental protection is so evident. The Environmental groups should start a campaign and do what the HSUS did a few years ago when they went into Pombo’s districts in CA to make sure people knew his record. Pearce is dangerous for democracy. With all his money you would think he would fix his teeth and get a toupee, maybe one with brains in it.

      1. mikarooni Avatar
        mikarooni

        They’d just be calf brains.

      2. william huard Avatar
        william huard

        I think the dude was asexually reproduced by spore. What a clown…….

      3. Daniel Berg Avatar
        Daniel Berg

        I love how these blowhards invoke the constitution as a justification for almost any position they take. I’d wager that most of them would be thoroughly embarassed if a public test of their constitutional knowledge ever took place.

        He should just be honest and say that he wants to develop and exploit every last acre of land for the benefit of a few, at the expense of many.

Author

Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.

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