Alamogordo Daily News

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES — A real estate broker and chairman of the Republican Party of Sierra County has announced he will run for Congress in the 2nd District.

C. Earl Greer, 51, of Truth or Consequences said the economy, the federal budget and border security are his top issues.

“When I’m holding my grandkids and I’m thinking, ’Oh, man where are we going?’ That’s the main reason I’m running,” Greer said by phone Wednesday..

Greer ran in 2006 for the state Public Regulation Commission, but lost in the general election to Democrat Sandy Jones. He’s been chairman of Sierra County’s GOP for five years.

Greer described himself as a fiscal conservative and advocated balancing the federal budget.

He also said he supports better security along the U.S.-Mexican border and advocated providing sheriff’s deputies in border counties with better equipment to help them secure the border.

“We need to start working a little closer with them because they are the front line defense,” said Greer, who also serves as a national committeeman for the New Mexico chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly.

The 2nd District includes all or parts of 18 counties spanning southern New Mexico.

The seat is being vacated by Republican Steve Pearce, who is running for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, along with Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico’s 1st District. Greer will face three other candidates seeking the GOP nomination in the 2nd District. They include rancher and retired banker Aubrey Dunn Jr., restaurant owner and rancher Ed Tinsley of Capitan and Bob Cornelius of Tatum.

Democrats running for the 2nd District include former Lea County Commission Chairman Harry Teague, Do�a Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley, Frank McKinnon of Roswell and Al Kissling, who lost to Pearce in 2006.