Zanetti Moving to Washington State to become CEO

New Mexico Republican Greg Zanetti, who dropped out of the 2010 Governor's race on July 17th, told us today that he’s moving out of state with his wife Teresa and two teenage children.

The New Mexico Brigadier General and investment portfolio manager said he’s been hired as the CEO for Los Arboles Management, LLC a real estate company that provides asset management services for it's clients.

Zanetti, who we last saw at the Albuquerque Tea Rally in April, begins the new job next Wednesday.

Zanetti said he was hired by his long-time high school friend Michael Larson to manage Los Arboles’ considerable portfolio. Larson is the chief investment officer for Bill Gates Investments (BGI) which oversees finances at the world's largest foundation.

After serving in the NM National Guard for 29 years, Zanetti told us he is retiring for the guard in December, and will be back in the state sometime in the late fall or early winter to attend his retirement celebration.

He said after a year long deployment to Guantanamo Bay he does not expect to be deployed, or called up again, before his retirement.

Zanetti said he and his new boss both graduated from Valley High School in 1976.

“We were gym rats, but not good enough to make the basketball team,” Zanetti said about his friend. “We spent a lot of time shooting hoops.”

The timing of Zanetti's move is in part centered around his two children, aged 14 and 16, who he wants to get settled into school at the beginning of the new term.

Four gubernatorial candidates are either in or considering running for the Republican Party nominations in 2010 including, State Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones, former NM GOP Party Chairman Allen Weh, Public Relations agency owner Doug Turner, and Dona Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez.