An environmental group opposing Rep. Steve Pearce’s run for the U.S. Senate is airing a TV ad that questions whether the Hobbs Republican has adequately explained the sale of one of his businesses to an oil services company in 2003.

With drumbeats and dramatic music playing behind, the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund ad spells out the details of the story that was first reported in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call earlier this year: That Pearce was in the process of selling his business Lea Fishing Tools to Key Energy Services even as Key Energy was an active participant in a hearing that Pearce co-chaired in Hobbs.

The Roll Call story found no evidence that Pearce took legislative action on behalf of Key Energy Services, and the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said Pearce hadn’t broken any of its rules. But Defenders spokesman Ed Yoon said Pearce owes New Mexico voters some explanations.

“There appear to be serious ethical lapses surrounding Steve Pearce’s business deal with Key Energy,” Yoon said in a release.

Pearce’s office told Roll Call that he and Key Energy had negotiated the sale of Lea Fishing Tools between January and June of 2003. In August, Key Energy officials appeared before a House affordable natural gas task force hearing in Hobbs co-chaired by Pearce and Rep. Heather Wilson. While Key Energy was not scheduled to testify, one of its top officials did, according to Roll Call.

Two months later, Key Energy announced it had purchased Pearce’s company “for about $12 million.” The exact price isn’t known because House members aren’t required to report such sales. On asset disclosure forms filed earlier that year, Pearce put the value at $5 million or less.

Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips said the difference between the reported value and the sale price is because the sale reflects the potential earnings of the business, which Key Energy estimated at $8 million a year. Pearce’s original report was essentially the value of the assets, Phillips said.

Key Energy later announced later that because of internal bookkeeping problems, it could not produce an annual report for 2003. It eventually was removed from the New York Stock Exchange but has since been reinstated, Roll Call wrote.

Phillips told Roll Call that “Congressman Pearce has acted correctly and in full compliance with the rules of the House,” but the Defenders ad said Pearce has yet to provide adequate details about the transaction. It asks voters to “call Steve Pearce and tell him New Mexico deserves answers.”

On Friday Phillips told the Independent that the ad is a sign that supporters of Pearce’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Tom Udall, are desperate “now that Udall’s poll numbers are coming down into the single digits.”