Grant County Dem chair enters gubernatorial race

The chairman of Grant County’s Democratic Party has decided to join two New Mexico titans in the race to be the party’s 2010 gubernatorial candidate.

Carlos Provencio announced his candidacy over the weekend.

“My motive is to give the people of New Mexico a real choice,” he wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “I hope to organize statewide around the issues of campaign reform, universal health care and the board of regents (of universities) being elected by the people rather than appointed by the governor.”

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish has already raised more than $1.5 million for her 2010 gubernatorial run. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez is also raising money and traveling the state, though he has not formally announced his candidacy and says he’s still considering whether to run.

Provencio, 53, pledged in his e-mail that he won’t accept corporate money for his campaign.

Provencio, who lives in Bayard, is a community activist with a bachelor’s degree in social work who has been involved in voter registration projects and a congressional campaign. He has also worked for unionization at Western New Mexico University and the Grant County Solid Waste Authority.

He has coordinated a union boycott in California and helped secure funding for a water study in Albuquerque. In Tucson, Ariz., he helped push for a youth recreation center and worked on a project to combat high dropout rates and absenteeism among American Indian children.

He was also a cofounder of the Albuquerque Interfaith Council.

Provencio acknowledged the tough task ahead.

“Obviously, I am going up against big money and I will be going door-to-door. We have a big state as far as distance. I am the people’s candidate and I will not accept any corporate money,” he wrote in an e-mail to me. “…The southern part of the state gets neglected in Santa Fe. We need a governor that will pay attention to the needs of all New Mexicans.”

Provencio’s chances are slim but his candidacy is interesting. Chávez was 20 points behind Denish in a recent Albuquerque Journal poll, so the mayor can’t be happy to have another Hispanic man enter the race.

At the same time, Provencio’s politics are more in line, in many ways, with those of Denish, so it will be interesting to see, as the election gets closer, the impact of Provencio’s candidacy.

A prior version of this positing incorrectly stated that Provencio has a master’s degree.