In covering this year's elections, SFR
on allegations made by Texas oil investor Nelson Spear about
inconsistencies in Republican land commissioner candidate Bob Cornelius' campaign claims.
Spear's allegations centered around Cornelius' frequent references to Petro Verde, LLC, a biogas company his
said “will create hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in annual revenue for the city of Clovis.” SFR found that while Petro Verde did exist,
it had yet to secure a single investor.
SFR's investigation also revealed that Cornelius—who also referred frequently to his major in political science and communications at Eastern New Mexico University—
did not actually graduate from ENMU
.
Prior to our first post, SFR spoke with Cornelius about the questions raised by Spear. Cornelius, who is quoted in the May 19 blog, told SFR that Petro Verde is active and that he'd met with Clovis Mayor Gayla Brumfield about the company's biogas project. Subsequently, he did not respond to e-mails and calls about his education. In a May 19 blog post titled “Cornelius Campaign: Inconsistencies Abound,” SFR published our findings.
On May 24, Cornelius sent an e-mail to SFR
requesting a retraction and apology
and listing the names of several people as evidence of his work with Petro Verde. After checking each reference, SFR sent Cornelius an e-mail on May 28, giving him the opportunity to respond. Below are Cornelius' initial request for a retraction and the results of SFR's fact-checking.
Note:
While SFR did not intend to pursue this story after the primary election, the publication of a
at Albuquerque Journal Watch prompted renewed protests from Cornelius, so SFR decided to publish our reportage thus far:
First of all, SFR did not write "Nelson has "been friends with Cornelius for the past five years." SFR wrote: "Nelson Spear, an attorney and petroleum investor who says he's been friends with Cornelius for the past five years..." The difference, obviously, is that SFR reports their friendship not as fact, but as Spear's version of the story.
SFR did first hear of inconsistencies in Cornelius' campaign though Spear—though SFR contacted Spear, not vice versa, after hearing from a source that he had information about the land commission race. After receiving Cornelius' request for a retraction, SFR asked Spear to respond to the allegation that he is a surrogate for Matt Rush.
"That's not true," Spear told SFR. "I may have casually met Matt Rush, but I think the first time I ever talked to him was in late April." Spear acknowledged that he had begun endorsing Rush in late April or early May, and said he only did so "based on Bob's attitude of...not repenting of what I believe his lies are."
"I am not a shill for Matt Rush," Spear concluded. "In fact, I have given no money to any New Mexico Land Commissioner candidate." SFR verified that Rush was not a contributor to Rush through the New Mexico Secretary of State's campaign finance information system.
Toney Anaya's
spokesman, Andy Lenderman, told SFR former Gov. Anaya "does not recollect any such meeting." Lenderman also said he "couldn't find any record of" a meeting with Cornelius in Anaya's office. Cornelius maintains that the meeting did occur and "was a luncheon at the now defunct Mission Café."
Through PRC spokesman Gerald Garner, David King confirmed that he met with Cornelius "in the last few months," according to an e-mail Garner sent to SFR. "Cornelius apparently asked King to set up a meeting with former Gov. Toney Anaya to explore possibility of obtaining stimulus funds for the project," Garner wrote on May 28. "Sorry it's not more substantive, but he confirmed that he had met with Cornelius re: Petro Verde."
Former Roswell mayor Sam Lagrone told SFR his only meeting with Cornelius occurred "eight to 12 months ago." As to whether he heard anything from Cornelius after that meeting, Lagrone said, "I sure didn't. that's the only meeting I ever had with the man, was right there. I really haven't even heard from Bob since that meeting." Cornelius confirmed this in his May 30 e-mail to SFR, stating that "we determined at the time that Roswell did not meet the specifications for our company."
Chaves County EDC Director Robert Donnell at first didn't recognize Cornelius' name, but after checking his notes confirmed to SFR that he and Kenneth Berry met with Cornelius once during a "very preliminary conversation" about biogas, but hadn't heard from him since. Cornelius confirmed this.
SFR could not reach Bethe Cunningham and requested contact information from Cornelius, who wrote in an e-mail: "Bethe is no longer the executive director of the Lea County EDC and is a private citizen. Therefore, I do not believe providing her personal contact information is necessary."
As first reported on May 19, Clovis Mayor Gayla Brumfield told SFR she did not recall meeting with Cornelius.
Former Texas congressman Steve Stockman, who is listed as an organizer on Petro Verde's PRC page, did not return multiple phone calls from SFR.
Michael Horanburg
, who was working on another campaign before the election, told SFR he preferred to keep his name out of this story. Cornelius later confirmed that while Horanburg had attended one meeting, "he is not affiliated with Petro Verde, LLC."
CIDC founder Gene Hendrick told SFR he and Chase Gentry met with Cornelius at "just the very beginning" of the biogas project. "[Cornelius] hasn't done a very good job of keeping us apprised of what's going on," Hendrick told SFR. "This sounds like something we ought to be really on top of, but we're not."
Robert Hagevoort
tells SFR he doesn't recall a meeting with Cornelius but that "I don't want to say [it didn't happen]" because he's had numerous such meetings over the past year.
Ashlee Stallings
told SFR that she did speak with Cornelius about the biogas project once, several months ago, and that she had not heard from him since.
Hendrick told SFR that neither he nor Chase Gentry has "had any contact with [Cornelius] that we can recall since he visited. He sent a follow-up e-mail with four or five questions, which Chase answered and passed right back to him, and to my knowledge we've had no contact since then," Hendrick told SFR.
SFR attempted to reach Cornelius several times over the course of reporting and fact-checking this story. On May 30, he wrote in a subsequent e-mail (posted below), "The reason I have not returned your phone calls is because you take my vocal comments out of context."
It does appear that Stockman was fined $40,000 by the FEC in his 1994 congressional race. It is hardly revolutionary to write about the backgrounds of people with whom candidates identify as their business associates. However, SFR did not intend to question Cornelius' faith or membership in the NRA; rather, this was a means of identifying that the information about Stockman's religion was unconfirmed since SFR was unable to reach him.
SFR removed the link to court records for a Joey Aragon on May 20 since we have been unable as yet to definitively confirm whether it is the same Joey Aragon. Aragon did not return phone calls, and Cornelius would not provide, when asked, additional contact information for Aragon.
On May 30, Cornelius responded to SFR's additional questions in a second e-mail, posted below.
SFR's question
s to Cornelius are
in bold.
Neither Stockman nor Aragon returned SFR's calls requesting confirmation.
Petro Verde's PRC listing contains only a street address. Neither a phone number nor a bank account was ever provided to SFR.
Officials from the Moriarty magistrate court confirmed the current warrant. And on June 7, S. U. Mahesh, the public information officer for the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division, wrote in an e-mail to SFR that Cornelius' record "shows his license is currently suspended and will remain suspended until he pays two tickets and then the reinstatement fee."
SFR did not publish this information following Cornelius' response.
As stated above, former Gov. Anaya denied having met with Cornelius. David King confirmed through a spokesman that he met with Cornelius, who asked him to set up a meeting with Anaya.
Cornelius is correct; at the time of this e-mail, David King was still the PRC chair. But SFR never spoke with David King; all correspondence was limited to PRC public information officer Gerald Garner.
Again, SFR's May 19 post was looking at what the basis is for Cornelius' campaign claims that Petro Verde "will create hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in annual revenue for the city of Clovis." Cornelius cited his meeting with Lagrone as part of his response to SFR's question about the company's status.
See above response.
SFR was unable to contact Cunningham.
Horanburg confirmed meeting with Cornelius once (see above).
Again, Cornelius' campaign mentioned that Petro Verde "will create hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in annual revenue for the city of Clovis."
Hendrick says two e-mails were the only exchange the CIDC had with Cornelius. Further, according to Hendrick, CIDC is the area's primary economic development organization.
"If [Cornelius is] not talking to Chase, I don't know who they'd talk to here," Hendrick tells SFR. "We'd normally jump right in the middle of things. We don't leave many stones unturned; believe me."
As posted above,
Hendrick told SFR that neither he nor Chase Gentry has "had any contact with [Cornelius] that we can recall since he visited. He sent a follow-up e-mail with four or five questions, which Chase answered and passed right back to him, and to my knowledge we've had no contact since then," Hendrick told SFR. Hendrick said a dairy expert attended the meeting but could not verify that it was Hagevoort.
SFR later reached Stallings, who replied that she'd had one meeting with Cornelius.
SFR never used an e-mail from Spear as the foundation of any blog post. SFR initiated contact with Spear and interviewed him several times subsequently over the phone.
ENMU Registrar Crystal Creekmore told SFR that Cornelius did not graduate but, citing Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) rules, would not confirm that she had been in contact with Cornelius.
Santa Fe Reporter