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Thursday, April 16, 2009
Zanetti Says He's Running for Governor in 2010
By Deborah Baker
Associated Press
SANTA FE — Greg Zanetti says he will run next year for the Republican nomination for governor of New Mexico.
Zanetti, an Albuquerque financial adviser and a brigadier general in the New Mexico Army National Guard, said he has been campaigning full-time since February.
"I'm traveling the state, we're raising money and there's an awful lot of enthusiasm for the campaign," Zanetti said.
He made the comments in an interview Wednesday after a Tax Day rally on the Santa Fe Plaza at which he was a speaker.
He greeted a line of well-wishers seeking his autograph or offering to help with his campaign.
Zanetti, 50, was twice the chairman of the Republican Party in Bernalillo County. He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor in 1994.
He recently completed deployment as deputy commander of the joint task force that runs the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Zanetti hailed the tax rally crowd as "the modern sons and daughters of liberty."
"We've watched in dismay as our freedoms have slowly but inextricably been eroded away," he said.
He praised the protesters for standing up to "the oppressive growth of government, taxes and regulation" and for resisting "the moral dangers embedded in the entitlement philosophy."
The economy has weakened, the nation's status in the world has declined, and many Americans have grown fearful, Zanetti said.
Fiscal irresponsibility must be halted, "and we can no longer allow the government to use its power of treaty and negotiation to weaken our sovereignty and diminish our standing as Americans," he added.
Former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, also a Republican, has said she is considering a bid for governor.
On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish long ago announced her intention to run, and actor Val Kilmer has said he is thinking about it.
Second-term Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson is prohibited by the state constitution from seeking re-election next year.
Copyright ©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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