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WASHINGTON — "A native son of New Mexico . . ."

So begins "Marty's Story," the biography of Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, on his campaign Web site, chavezforsenate.com.

And it's a point the Democrat stressed in his announcement for the U.S. Senate race and again in an online "town hall" meeting Tuesday.

It's a fact that Chavez, 55, was born and raised in Albuquerque and that all three of the other leading contenders for the Senate — Reps. Tom Udall, a Santa Fe Democrat, Heather Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican, and Steve Pearce, a Hobbs Republican — were born outside New Mexico.

But they have a lot of company.

According to the 2000 census, six out of 10 Americans live in the state where they born, but in New Mexico 51.5 percent of the residents were born there. About 31.9 percent of New Mexico residents were born in another state or territory and 16.6 percent were born in a foreign country.

A dozen states, most in the fast-growing West, have a smaller percentage of native-born population than New Mexico.

Nevada is tops with 23 percent of residents born there. Louisiana has the highest native-born population, 79.4 percent.

Does being a native make a difference to voters?

"When given a choice, New Mexicans usually prefer a native son," said Chavez's campaign manager, Mark Fleisher. He said it might mean more than whether a candidate is Anglo or Hispanic.

Udall's camp begs to differ. "Obviously, it doesn't," said Tom Nagle, Udall's chief of staff. "This is a distraction from the issues."

Besides, Udall has "deep roots" in New Mexico, he said.

Udall, 59, was born in Tucson, but some of his ancestors lived in Pleasanton, N.M., before the Civil War, and his paternal grandmother, Louise Lee Udall, lived in Luna, N.M. Udall himself moved to the state in 1975 to attend the University of New Mexico's law school and never left.

Pearce, 61, was born in Lamesa, Texas, but his sharecropper father moved the family to Hobbs when he was 2.

Wilson, 46, was born in Keene, N.H. After a career in the Air Force she moved to Albuquerque in 1991 to marry Jay Hone.

Currently, 68 of the 100 U.S. senators were born in the state they represent.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman is not among them. His parents went from Silver City to a hospital in El Paso for his birth, and the Census Bureau says that makes him a native Texan.

In the Senate, the most famous example of a carpetbagger is Hillary Clinton, the Chicago-born first lady of Little Rock, Ark., and Washington, D.C., who now represents New York.

But New York has returned the favor, exporting New York-born Sens. Norm Coleman to Minnesota, Barbara Boxer to California and Robert Menendez to New Jersey.

Albuquerque-born Sen. Pete Domenici has shown his devotion to New Mexico on the Appropriations Committee.

But West Virginia has equally enjoyed the benevolence of the committee chairman, North Carolina-born Democrat Robert Byrd, as did Alaska his predecessor, Hoosier Republican Ted Stevens.

Governors are less native. Twenty-four out of the 50 were born in another state, including New Mexico's Bill Richardson, born in Pasadena, Calif.

Of the leading candidates for president, Republican Rudy Giuliani of New York, Democrat Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Democrat Chris Dodd of Connecticut were born in the state they now call home.