Marco Gonzales wanted to be a professional baseball player, but the scouts were honest: He wouldn't make it as a pro. So after college he had to look elsewhere.

He didn't search too far.

Just two metro stops from his college in Washington, D.C., was Capitol Hill.

"I've got to get into that," Gonzales said he decided, adding, "I've got to know how New Mexico issues are being addressed."

In 1987, he made his first political cold call, approaching the office of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, then a 14-year veteran of the Senate, just to see what he could do for the senator, whose views he happened to share.

Eighteen days later, he was still calling, because Domenici's press secretary at the time kept telling him to call back tomorrow.

On the 19th day, Gonzales said, the tired-of-his-calls secretary put Gonzales to work doing legislative correspondence and other unpaid-intern duties.

That turned out to be a career-defining time for Gonzales, now 41. He spent a decade working for Domenici.

During those 10 years on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant and even afterward, Gonzales said, he gleaned wisdom and inspiration from the state's senior senator, who has formally endorsed Gonzales' bid.

Gonzales said he knows Domenici cares about his job and the people he served. The candidate recalled a moment in 2002, during Domenici's last re-election campaign, when during a one-on-one dinner at the end of a seven-week swing around New Mexico, Domenici became pensive.

The senator, he said, confided he hadn't been able to sleep.

Gonzales said he asked why.

"He said, 'I just keep wondering if I've done everything right for the people. Could I have done something better, could I be better than what I am?' "

At the state Republican Party pre-primary convention, Gonzales, a lawyer, got 68 percent of the vote and seems poised to win the primary election June 3.

Conventional wisdom, however, says that's not enough to win the north in November. In the last congressional race, the district voted just 27 percent Republican.

Gonzales, however, thinks he can do better than that, picking up Independents and even some Democrats — in part because of his connection to the community.

His father, a retired banker, helped many residents start businesses or get first homes. His mother was a longtime National Park Service employee.

"Most of the guys on the other side," he said, "are my friends. A lot of undecided voters after the primary will be looking for a different choice. When they look around they are going to see I'm somebody they know and they can trust."

A lot of his own family members, by the way, are Democrats.

But there's another reason Gonzales said he can put non-Republicans in his column: experience.

"We've got to have people in Congress who know what they are doing. I think that I'll be ready from day one because I spent a decade learning from who I think is our greatest senator."

If elected, Gonzales said, he'd focus on bringing jobs to the district — and protecting those at one of the area's biggest economic engines: Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Gonzales said all this in what seems one long breath, expressing excitement about the possibility he'll work on Capitol Hill again.

"The job of a congressman is to take care of his district," he said.

"If the people of the North put me in, I'll work tirelessly."

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog, Green Chile Chatter, at www.sfnewmexican.com



Age: 41

Education: Graduated from St. Michael's High School in 1985; attended St. Mary's of the Plains College in Dodge City, Kan., from 1985-1986; earned a bachelor's degree in world politics from the Catholic University of America in 1990; graduated from Georgetown University Law Center with a juris doctorate in 1998.

Career experience: Associate with the Modrall Sperling Law Firm from 1998-2005; now a partner with the firm in Santa Fe.

Political experience: Legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici from 1988 to 1998; served on the state GOP's executive committee; past co-chairman of Domenici's statewide campaign.

Personal: Single; youngest of seven children born to Maria and Jose Gonzales; tries to run four miles every day; likes hitting baseballs at the batting cage and lifting weights.

Arrests: None

Web site: www.marcogonzalesforcongress.com