{"id":2246,"date":"2007-09-17T08:29:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-17T14:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/grant-county-dem-chair-enters-gubernatorial-race\/"},"modified":"2007-09-17T08:29:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-17T14:29:00","slug":"grant-county-dem-chair-enters-gubernatorial-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/09\/grant-county-dem-chair-enters-gubernatorial-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant County Dem chair enters gubernatorial race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The chairman of Grant<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename>\u2019s Democratic Party has decided to join two New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> titans in the race to be the party\u2019s 2010 gubernatorial candidate. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Carlos Provencio<\/a> announced his candidacy over the weekend.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cMy motive is to give the people of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> a real choice,\u201d he wrote in an e-mail to supporters. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Diane Denish<\/a> has already raised more than $1.5 million for her 2010 gubernatorial run. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Ch\u00e1vez<\/a> is also raising money and traveling the state, though he has not formally announced his candidacy and says he\u2019s still considering whether to run.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Provencio, 53, pledged in his e-mail that he won\u2019t accept corporate money for his campaign.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Provencio, who lives in Bayard, is a community activist with a bachelor\u2019s degree in social work who has been involved in voter registration projects and a congressional campaign. He has also worked for unionization at Western<\/st1:placename> New Mexico<\/st1:placename> University<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> and the Grant County Solid Waste Authority.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He has coordinated a union boycott in California<\/st1:state> and helped secure funding for a water study in Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. In Tucson<\/st1:city>, Ariz.<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, he helped push for a youth recreation center and worked on a project to combat high dropout rates and absenteeism among American Indian children.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He was also a cofounder of the Albuquerque Interfaith Council.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Provencio acknowledged the tough task ahead.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, 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\u2019s candidate and I will not accept any corporate money,\u201d he wrote in an e-mail to me. \u201c\u2026The southern part of the state gets neglected in Santa Fe<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>. We need a governor that will pay attention to the needs of all New Mexicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Provencio\u2019s chances are slim but his candidacy is interesting. Ch\u00e1vez was 20 points behind Denish in a recent Albuquerque Journal poll<\/a>, so the mayor can\u2019t be happy to have another Hispanic man enter the race.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

At the same time, Provencio\u2019s 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\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n

\n

A prior version of this positing incorrectly stated that Provencio has a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The chairman of Grant County\u2019s Democratic Party has decided to join two New Mexico titans in the race to be the party\u2019s 2010 gubernatorial candidate. Carlos Provencio announced his candidacy over the weekend. \u201cMy motive is to give the people of New Mexico a real choice,\u201d he wrote in an e-mail to supporters. \u201cI hope […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}