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New Mexico's congressional delegation for years has been dominated by the big names: U.S. Sens. Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman; U.S. Reps. Tom Udall and Heather Wilson.

To many in Albuquerque, by far the state's biggest bloc of voters, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce usually fell to the second tier of recognition - in large part because he's from Hobbs, more than 220 miles away.

Pearce, however, aims to change that as he officially begins his quest today to win the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.

Though Pearce plans his first formal announcement at midday in Hobbs, he'll trumpet his intentions a few hours later in Albuquerque. And over the next few days, he'll blanket the rest of the state as well: Farmington, Santa Fe, Clovis, Tinnie, Alamogordo, Mesilla and Carlsbad.

Already, he's running a 60-second radio ad on stations around the state, accentuating what may be his Republican primary campaign theme against Wilson: "A consistent conservative."

For those not familiar with Pearce, 59, here are a few facts:

• He was born in Lamesa, Texas, raised in Hobbs, and has degrees from New Mexico State University and Eastern New Mexico University. He is married to Cynthia Pearce and has one adult daughter. He is Baptist.

• He served in the state House of Representatives from 1996 to 2000. He lost a three-way Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate in 2000 to Bill Redmond of Los Alamos. He was elected to the U.S. House in 2003, succeeding Republican Joe Skeen.

• Pearce points to his work ethic, having missed just 76 of 3,441 votes - about 2 percent - since going to Congress, according to the Web site govtrack.us. Since 2003, he's co-sponsored 502 bills and sponsored 63 bills, 49 of which didn't make it out of committee. Four became law, according to the site.

• Pearce is an assistant Republican whip and serves on the House Financial Services Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee. He's also the vice chairman of the Sportsman's Caucus in the House.

• Pearce is no slouch at fund-raising. His cash on hand for the race is $582,312, according to October Federal Election Commission reports. Wilson's cash on hand: $755,609.

• Pearce served as a pilot in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, reaching the rank of captain. In 2006, he supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 66 percent of the time, according to the group.

• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington this year put Pearce on its list of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress. The group said he failed to report the sale of a company he owned, Lea Fishing Tools, an oilfield services firm, on a 2003 financial disclosure report.

• The AFL-CIO said he supported its causes 14 percent of the time in 2006.

• Pearce suffered a setback to his reputation when a press secretary resigned in 2005 after admitting he plagiarized an energy policy analysis to be used as a newspaper guest column by Pearce.

• Pearce is a proud member of 4-H and is a past president of the New Mexico 4-H Foundation. In 1966, he was the top male achievement winner and received a silver tray from President Lyndon Johnson.