Pruitt, a Republican, will be seeking the District 37 seat held by Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces. A news release from Pruitt states that he wants to “give better representation and to level the playing field for the constituents.”

“Someone is needed to take care of the issues of the people in District 37, which have been overlooked in the past. I have no one to answer to but the people in my district and carry no baggage into the office of representative,” Pruitt said.

He cited finding a way to bring more potable water into the Mesilla Valley through desalinization or other means and looking for ways to cut government spending as issues on which he intends to focus.

Pruitt has lived in the county for almost 10 years. He said he has “knowledge of the needs of District 37 and listens to the people of the district” and intends, if elected, “to do his utmost to fulfill these needs and follow the lead of his constituents.”

He ran unsuccessfully for a PRC seat in 2006 and for the county commission seat last year.

The evidence suggests he is, and Pruitt, in a brief interview, refused to answer any questions about the situation

Pruitt has told the Las Cruces Sun-News he has prior experience as an elected official on a city council in California. And he told the Las Cruces Bulletin he served four years on the city council in Lakewood, Calif.

A spokesman for that city, Don Waldie, wrote in an e-mail that Pruitt ran for city council in 1980 but came in 13th out of 14 candidates, winning 308 votes out of about 4,000. Pruitt has never been a city council member, Waldie wrote.

In addition, the city, located in Los Angeles County, recently published a list of city councilors dating back to 1954, and Pruitt isn’t on the list.

Reached by telephone, Pruitt refused to answer questions about the situation.

“I’m not running for office in that state. That’s not my platform,” he said. “… I just have no answer for it. I don’t understand it. Well, I do understand it but I’m not going to go into it. I’ve made some enemies. That’s it.”

Pruitt was quoted by the Bulletin as saying that he served all but two months of his term on the Lakewood City Council before quitting because he was “tired of being a minority of one.” Asked about the city saying he never served on the council, Pruitt told the newspaper that “somebody’s playing games.”

The Democratic Party of New Mexico attacked in a news release.

“It is extremely important that the public can completely trust the candidates running for office,” Scott Krahling, Pruitt’s Democratic opponent for the District 4 seat, said in the release. “If one misleads the public regarding their résumé and past public service, then we must question their honesty, integrity and ethics.”

Pruitt, who has lived in Doña Ana County for nine years, ran for a state Public Regulation Commission seat in 2006. He finished third in a three-way primary.