Ron Simmons for U.S. House of Representatives

The challenges of foreign policy, full employment, improvements in education

and health care, rural development, job creation in renewable energy and

preservation of natural resources are not partisan issues for New Mexico or

the nation. I have chosen to run for U.S. House of Respresentatives, New Mexico

District 3, as an Independent with the hope of crossing party lines to work as an

individual with all sectors of District 3 to address these challenges. 

I spent my early years in the mountains of Southern California. My dad served in

the Navy; my mother was a life-long teacher and administrator. While in high

school I wrote a series of articles with my brother for the Riverside Press Enterprise

 and the San Bernardino Sun, helping preserve the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area

from development. My life-long hobby has been mountain hiking. During college

I lived and worked on an apple ranch in Oak Glen, California.

I received my B.A. in English from the University of California at Riverside in

1967, with the help of a Regent scholarship. I did graduate work in 1967-68 in

English at UCR, but stopped to support family. In 1980, I served as a liaison for

military families as an American Red Cross volunteer. I returned to UCR to

complete my Secondary Teaching Credential in English in 1982. I have a current

New Mexico Secondary Credential in English and Math. I was employed in the

federal Migrant Education tutor program for two years in 1978-79, and as a tutor

in English and Math at Santa Fe Community College in 1998. In 2006, I completed

a workshop in photovoltaics at SFCC.

I moved to Northern New Mexico in 1970 and began a 38-year building career in

Nambe, where I first learned adobe building techniques. I bought a small farm in

Chimayo in 1973 and commuted for most of the next 25 years to Santa Fe and Los

Alamos to build houses. I obtained my contractor license in 1981 and started my

own business in 1990, DBA Ron Simmons and Associates. Since 1998, I have lived

in Santa Fe and continued building single-family homes under contract to

community members. Company projects include two projects for Neighborhood

Housing Services of Santa Fe (now Homewise) and many solar adobe homes,

employing passive solar heating and hot water, trombe wall and berm construction,

waste straw insulation and water collection.

I am single, 62 years old, and have been married twice. I sponsor a child in

Senegal. I am a member of the following organizations: Natural Resource Defense

Council; American Civil Liberties Union; Santa Fe and New Mexico Homebuilder

Association; New Mexico and American Solar Energy Society; New Mexico

Health Security Campaign; Santa Fe Watershed Association. 

BIO:

HOME: Northern New Mexico 1970-77, 1982-2008; Santa Fe, since 1998      AGE: 62      Single

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Arts degree in English, minor in Art History, from University of

California at Riverside; graduate work in English at UCR and a Secondary Teaching

Credential in English at UCR; Photovoltaic workshop, SFCC

EMPLOYMENT: U.S. Forest Service 1970; builder,rancher 1971-77; Migrant Education

Program tutor  1978-79; licensed General Contractor since 1981; supervisor, Trinity Builders,

Los Alamos 1983-1990; 1990 to present: GB-98 NM General Contractor DBA Ron Simmons &

Associates, building single-family residences

VOLUNTEER SERVICE: American Red Cross, liasison for military families, U.S. to overseas, 1980