SANTA FE – Investment adviser and West Point graduate Greg Zanetti of Albuquerque says he’ll seek the Republican nomination for governor of New Mexico in next year’s election.

In a news release Monday, Zanetti says that he wants to “restore some dignity and principled leadership to the governor’s office.”

Zanetti said he wants to work with local officials to reduce rates of crime and improve schools without providing detailed proposals.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is running for re-election in 2022 on her handling of the pandemic, tax breaks for working families and increases in spending on public education. She has signed legislation that legalizes recreational marijuana, emphasizes gun safety, shores up abortion rights and scales up financial incentives to businesses.

Zanetti has nurtured a public following on local radio with regular appearances to provide financial advice.

He was the Republican Party county chairman in the Albuquerque area and he organized advocacy against abortion access and against labor-union membership requirements in collective bargaining.

Other contenders for the Republican nomination include Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block.

Zanetti grew up in Albuquerque and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1980 to serve six years on active duty. He later entered the National Guard and was deployed in 2005 as a brigadier general to a task force that oversees the detention center at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba.