Joe has worked and been educated in both big business and small, working as a financial analyst/stockbroker and building a successful restaurant enterprise. Joe left his big business experience and began a small pizza business in Albuquerque across from the University of New Mexico, initially as its only employee. He then hired university students to help and slowly built a reputation for what was considered the “best” pizza in Albuquerque. His father, his wife and even his then-small children helped him build Carraro’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant up to two locations with an expanded menu that included many of his family’s recipes. While paying bills and making a payroll was “quite a learning experience about the responsibilities of owning a small business,” Joe also took the time to further his education and even run for political office.

Joe has a BA in Political Science and English from the University of New Mexico, and a Masters of Business Management from the Executive Management Masters Program at the Robert O. Anderson School of Business at UNM. Because the Anderson School does not grant PhDs, Joe combined his coursework from the Anderson School with a dissertation to receive his PhD from LaCrosse University. He has attended schools of finance, business, and energy — and has taught both undergraduate and graduate school courses in Organizational and Human Behavior and Professional Ethics at the University of Phoenix in Albuquerque. Since selling his business in 1995, he has become an international business consultant and writer, while spending most of his time representing his District as a State Senator.

Ronald Reagan brought Joe into politics. Joe’s first involvement with political affairs was when Ronald Reagan’s staff invited Joe and leaders from other western states to meet with the then-Governor in Utah. At the time, Reagan was seeking advice concerning whether he should run for President and wanted Joe’s input as a small businessman. Joe met with the future President and then became a volunteer for Ronald Reagan’s campaign for President of the United States. After his election, members of President Reagan’s staff and the New Mexico campaign suggested that Joe Carraro run for office in New Mexico.

In 1984, Joe was first elected as a New Mexico State Senator in a District that was overwhelmingly Democrat. Joe worked for votes by going door to door and promising the people that he would represent them and not the special interests of government, political parties or big business. He guaranteed that if bills supporting projects, such as the Paseo del Norte Bridge over the river, school improvements, and recreational fields did not pass during his first session, that he would resign. He won by a landslide. In his first session, Joe fulfilled the promises he made during his campaign, and his actions demonstrate that he has always been true to his word.

Senator Joseph J. Carraro has won his District in every election in which he has run. In the 2000 election, the last one in which he was opposed, Joe received 83 percent of the vote. Senator Carraro begins every Legislative Session by reminding the other Senators that none of them voted for his election to the State Senate - it was his constituents who elected him, and that’s who he is there to represent and to whom he must ultimately answer. To Joe Carraro, it is an honor and a privilege to be trusted by the people to represent their interests, and he has always taken that trust very seriously.

During the Legislative sessions, Senator Carraro serves on the Senate Finance Committee. Between sessions he serves on the Legislative Finance Committee, which is responsible for creating the State’s budget. Joe was previously Co-Chairman of the Education Reform Committee, and he is the only Republican to have recently been selected as Chairman of a committee – the Investment Funds Oversight Committee. Joe also serves on the Indian Affairs Committee, the Land Grant Committee, and the Ethics Committee. In addition, Joe has been selected as Chairman of the Trade and Transportation Committee of the Council of State Governments. He is involved with many issues ranging from energy, trade, transportation, and foreign policy, and currently serves on many national committees, including the National Energy Council and the International Committee of the Council of State Governments.

A father of five, Joe lives in Albuquerque’s West Side with Zoey, his faithful companion. Joe rescued Zoey through the “Second Chance Animal Rescue, Inc.” in Rio Rancho.

A few words from Joe:

There are many things that frame who I am and what I believe. As a young child, I learned the value of hard work and discipline from my Italian immigrant father who was a New York City policeman, and who had to still work two jobs after he became disabled. I learned compassion from my mother who was a volunteer at the Veteran’s Hospital, but who died much too soon when I was a teenager — that’s what brought me to Albuquerque to live with my sister and her husband who was an officer at Kirtland Air Force Base. [As I child] I was brought up as a Catholic and experienced both my mother’s faith as an Episcopal and my religion by attending both church services on Sundays. It was a way to Thank God for all that He has bestowed, and to pray for those that could use a prayer — of course, including myself. I have never missed Mass for those reasons.

I worked in a cancer isolation ward of a hospital growing up to save for college and experienced patients and families with no hope. After college I enlisted in the Army Reserves and eventually served my advanced infantry training at Tigerland in Ft. Polk, Louisiana. I became a platoon leader and helped train troops sent to Vietnam. I became personally close to those troops, and though I wasn’t sent to Vietnam, I got to meet heroes and soldiers who were brave beyond anything I could ever offer. I was fortunate enough to meet with some of those soldiers when they returned from Vietnam, and I saw how war had changed their lives forever. I did not serve in a combat zone, but became dedicated to those that put their lives in harm’s way.

Winning my first race as a State Senator was one of the proudest moments of my father’s life. To come from Italy to America in search of freedom and liberty — and to have his son serve as a Senator — gave him such a sense of accomplishment that when I promised voters I would resign if I didn’t fulfill my campaign promises, he told me that “you better not let those people down.”