Garcia formally announces bid for state House seat

Though he already confirmed in an interview with me last month that he would run, New Mexico State University associate professor Jose Z. Garcia formally announced Tuesday that he is running for the District 52 seat in the state House of Representatives being vacated by Joseph Cervantes, who is running for Congress.

“Joseph Cervantes and his predecessor, Dolores Wright, served this district with distinction. Voters need to select someone to continue the hard work and fighting spirit that enabled them to accomplish so much in the relatively short time each of them served,” Garcia said in a news release. “I hope to persuade the voters of this district that I am that person.”

Garcia, 62, is the first to announce his candidacy for the open House seat.

Garcia, who teaches government at NMSU, was appointed by the governor to the New Mexico Border Authority in 2002 and served for four years. He is a past chair of the Doña Ana County Democratic Party and has served as treasurer for the state House campaigns of Cervantes and Wright.

His wife is Olivia Nevarez Garcia, a Doña Ana County magistrate judge.

“I’ve spent half a lifetime in Las Cruces active in Democratic Party circles, teaching New Mexico politics and serving on various public organizations that affect our community. This vacancy presents me with an opportunity to put this experience to work in the Legislature, and this is a good time in my life to do so,” he said. “My family is thriving, my health is good and I’ve got fire in the belly.”

If elected, Garcia plans to retire from the university. His next step is meeting with residents of the district to hear their concerns.

“The southern part of the district is in the path of development, from Chaparral to Mesquite, and the agenda there has to do with helping to coordinate that growth with the public interest in mind,” he said. “The northern part of the district (in south Las Cruces near Memorial Medical Center) has the normal problems associated with urban life and improving the provision of public services to the citizens. I look forward to learning more about the priorities of the citizens of the district and, if elected, I will represent their views as faithfully as possible.”

Garcia was born in California to parents who were native New Mexicans. He lived in Peru and Ecuador until he was 14 while his father worked for the U.S. State Department. He went to high school in Albuquerque before earning a bachelor’s degree in diplomacy and world affairs from Occidental College in Los Angeles, a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a doctorate in political science from the University of New Mexico.

He is known as an expert on U.S./Mexico border issues and was the director of NMSU’s Center for Latin American Studies from 1991 to 2003. He recently traveled to Southern Mexico and Japan to present a paper on U.S. immigration policy.