Joseph J. Carraro is a former state senator from New Mexico who served for twenty-four years from 1985 to 2009. He was an acquaintance and supporter of Ronald Reagan, who encouraged him to run for elected office. His first election race in 1984 he ran in a district had a 4-to-1 Democrat majority and he won as a Republican 2-to-1. He was named National Outstanding Legislator of the Year. In 2008 he changed his political registration from Republican to independent. Senator Carraro received an MBA and a PhD; and has taught Organizational and Human Behavior and Professional Ethics in graduate school, and president of the Executive Management Association of New Mexico. As a financial analyst he worked on Wall Street for Merrill Lynch and became a stockbroker and used that experience as chairman of a multibillion-dollar investment oversight committee when he was a state senator. He founded and owned Carraro’s Italian Restaurants, and founded Project Share, a private homeless feeding program in Albuquerque. He is an author, lecturer, and screenwriter, playwright, and continues his international consulting business Carraro and Associates Inc. As a state senator he championed the causes of the developmentally disabled, and autistic and felt fortunate that his family never suffered such conditions. Working as a custodian in a cancer isolation ward of a hospital, he experienced the desperation and suffering of those patients and families while members of his family had never experienced the heartache from cancer and as a state senator sponsored the funding of the NIH-recognized cancer center for treatment and disease research at the University of New Mexico. As a senator, he learned by listening and asking questions and doing whatever was necessary to get the job done. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he was responsible for getting the gasoline needed to run the generators in New Orleans, and was then tasked with mopping floors in the emergency trauma center while taking those morbidly obese to the bathroom, and helping organize Angel Flights for those who lost their homes to be reunited with family members throughout the country, and eventually being placed in charge of the psychiatric triage. He was then singled out by the Louisiana Legislature in the passing of a resolution in his honor for his response and contribution to those in desperate need. He always says he knows what it takes to get the job done, whether dealing with the head of a country or cleaning up someone else’s mess. In 1999 he also headed the Venezuelan Medical Recovery and Disaster Relief effort during Vargas tragedy. He was later recommended by elected officials form both major parties to be Ambassador to Venezuela. He became an executive committee member of the National Energy Council, attended the MacGuire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University, and met with energy ministers from around the world. He served on National Legislative Committees of Finance, International Affairs, Education and chairman of the Trade and Transportation Committee of the Council of State Governments. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Commission for Disabled Americans. Carraro ran in the Republican primary in a bid for the seat vacated by Heather Wilson in New Mexico's 1st congressional district in 2008.
