Pyne in NM Senate race
to fill Carraro's old seat By Eric Maddy
The SCORE
David T. Pyne, a self-described “lifelong conservative Republican grass roots political activist,” announced Wednesday he will run for the New Mexico Senate in District 23, which includes part of Sandoval County.
The seat is being vacated by Joe Carraro, who is running for Congress against Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White.
Pyne, who currently serves as a ward chairman for the Republican Party of New Mexico and as a member of the New Mexico State Republican Central Committee, has been active in the political campaigns of several conservative Republicans vying for state and national office, and has held various campaign and county Republican Party positions in California, Idaho, Utah, Virginia and New Mexico.
Previously, he served as Utah County Campaign Chairman for the Buchanan for President campaign in 1996, as Caribou County (Idaho) Republican Party Treasurer in Idaho from 1996-97 and as a member of the Stafford County (Virginia) Agricultural Committee from 2004-2005.
He has also served as a precinct chairman and precinct captain on several occasions in Utah and Virginia. In addition, he has served as both a county and state delegate to the Utah, Virginia and New Mexico State Republican Party conventions over the past 11 years.
Pyne, who is making his first run for office, said his top three issues would be “to improve the quality of education, fight illegal immigration on our southern border and to enact comprehensive tax reform to provide incentives for out of state business and professionals to relocate to New Mexico to create new jobs for our citizens.”
“Too many of our schools have been rated as failing and our education quality has consistently been ranked in the bottom three in surveys taken during the past few years,” he said. “If elected, I promise to work hard to change that.”
“Also, I’m looking at comprehensive tax reform in order to keep jobs in the state and increase growth and prosperity.” Pyne said. “That would include replacing the New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax with a straight sales tax.”
Pyne also said he was concerned with Gov. Bill Richardson’s proposal for universal health care.
“The socialized health care that Gov. Richardson is trying to push on the public is scary,” he said.
Pyne said being he first candidate to announce “is kind of hard. Normally, you model your campaign against an existing candidate. At this point, no one has declared on either side.”
State Rep. Tom Anderson, whose district is inside the Senate boundaries, has previously expressed interest in the seat. He did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.
Pyne said, “I am running as a 100% pro-business, pro-growth candidate” who is “a strong social and fiscal conservative. I have always been strongly pro-life, pro-family and pro-Second Amendment,” he said.
Pyne was critical of “the Democrat culture of corruption in Santa Fe showcased by the (former New Mexico State Treasurer Robert) Vigil scandal” and hopes this is the year when the Republicans will break Democratic control of the Senate. Republicans need to gain four seats to do so.
“I think over three quarters of a century of one party rule in the state legislature is just too long,” he said. “It is important to restore some checks and balances to our state government to ensure that the interests of all of New Mexico’s citizens are represented not just those of Democrat-leaning special interest groups.”
The Paradise Hills resident praised Carraro “for his long and distinguished record of service to the people of the 23rd district totaling nearly two decades. I wish him all the best in his t bid to represent the constituents of the First Congressional District in the United States Congress.”
“I believe I am the strongest candidate with the best chance of holding this seat for the GOP in next fall’s general election,” Pyne stated. “I have been humbled by the fact that the response from the county and state Republican Party leaders and current and former elected leaders I have contacted over the past few weeks regarding my candidacy for State Senate has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Pyne is presently writing a book entitled, “The New Islamic Empire of Iran: How the US Invasion and Occupation of Iraq is Helping to Forge It Into the Next Regional Hegemony of the Persian Gulf,” which includes his prescription for how the United States can win the war in Iraq.
He is also involved in writing two novels. The first, “The China War,” is a collaborative project with Robert Skimin about a hypothetical Communist Chinese invasion of North America set in 2021. The second novel, “Stalin’s War: An Alternate History of the Second World War,” speculates how World War II might have developed had Imperial Germany, aided by U.S. neutrality, won World War I.
Pyne, 38, is an attorney who works for Honeywell as a senior contract representative. He grew up in southern California and spent 6½ years working as a defense contractor in the Washington, D.C. area prior to moving to Albuquerque three years ago.
“Family ties are a big part of the reason we relocated,” Pyne said. “My uncle and all of his family has lived here for 25 years, and my grandparents live in Rio Rancho. I had visited Albuquerque and thought it was a great place. I wanted to relocate farther west, so now we’re within driving distance of my parents and in-laws.”
He and his wife Donelle have four daughters: Christina, 11; Kathryn, 7; Caitlin, 6; and Ashley, 4.
Pyne previously worked as a Lead Acquisition Analyst in CACI Dynamics Systems’ Business Management Division and as a consultant for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
He has also served as an international programs manager for the U.S. Army, responsible for the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. He has traveled as a member of Department of Defense-led delegations to Canada, South Africa, Israel, Brazil and Argentina, and worked as an international analyst in the Defense department. He also worked for the U.S. Navy as a Research Assistant for the Center for Security Policy.
Pyne, who also served as an army officer, is a member of the Republican National Committee, the Club for Growth, Americans for Tax Reform, the National Right to Life Committee, the American Life League, the Center for Emerging National Security Affairs (CENSA), the American Legion, the Association of the United States Army, the Military Officers Association of America and the National Rifle Association.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young in 1992, where he minored in international relations and history. He earned is law degree Southwestern University School of Law in 1995 and a masters degree in national security studies from Georgetown in 2000.
He also lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil for from 1988-90 while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
