Bill Richardson

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will hold a press conference this afternoon at 1 p.m. Mountain Time to officially announce his departure from the Democratic presidential race—but he won't be endorsing another Democratic candidate at this time.

"He wants to make a considered choice," said Martha Burk, his senior adviser for women's issues.  read more »

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will hold a press conference this afternoon at 1 p.m. Mountain Time to officially announce his departure from the Democratic presidential race—but he won't be endorsing another Democratic candidate at this time.

"He wants to make a considered choice," said Martha Burk, his senior advisor for women's issues.

Burk, a syndicated columnist and an editor at Ms. magazine, has made an endorsement, however. She said that "I expect I'll be going to work for Hillary Clinton. She is by far, by far, the most qualified candidate viable in the race right now."

Why not John Edwards or Barack Obama? "I would guess if you ask particularly Obama, but Edwards as well, to talk about the nuances of social security or whether we need a caregiver credit or we need paid leave. i doubt they'd have the depth," she said.

"I was so turned off by what Mr. Edwards said after the emotional moment that Mrs. Clinton had: What few female voters he had would have left him at that point. Making cracks about how being commander in chief is tough?" she said. "That was so sexist. Did he ever tear up? I imagine that he has. He's had some very emotional things happen in his life, not least when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. I thought it was a big disservice to Mrs. Clinton when he did it."

Bill Richardson gave his speech.

"The national media has kinda put the Iraq war aside," he said at the New Hampshire State Democratic Party Dinner. (For the record, he'd like to have the troops home in a year.)

By the time he was wrapping up, railing about how the primary should be settled by the voters, not by the "national media," hundreds of Obama supporters had begun gathering near the stage, chanting and yelling.

Then: an eruption. The majority of the hall that holds the party dinner--the hall, a dome actually, is enormous, by the way--jumped to their feet for Obama. Definitely a minority were sitting.

"In four days you can do what Iowa did last night," he said, to roars.  read more »

Traditionally, the week after Christmas is Bowl Week, a bonanza of largely meaningless college football games, from the obscure PapaJohns.com Bowl to the august Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.

This year, the bowls will have competition for the nation’s attention from politics, with the day after Christmas marking the start of a frenzied week-long run-up to the January 3 Iowa caucuses (which will actually convene just as the Orange Bowl kicks off).

It’s quite fitting. Both clunky and dysfunctional relics of an outdated era, the college bowl system and the presidential primary process have more in common than you might think:

* College football has the Hawaii Warriors, a scrappy bunch who did everything they could to earn a crack the national title (winning every game they played), only to be locked out of the big game because pundits and media members were dazzled by teams with more star power. The Presidential race has Bill Richardson.

* College football has the greedy Presidents of the major conference schools, who bitterly and successfully resist the post-season tournament that the game so badly needs merely because they will lose their guaranteed paydays from the marquee bowl games. The presidential race has Iowa and New Hampshire.

* College football has Lou Holtz, sporting a 15-year-old wardrobe and railing at a camera. The presidential race has Chris Matthews.

And so on.

Bill Richardson is looking for help.

In an email to supporters, the head of his New York effort writes, “Our most immediate need is for people to help with collecting signatures between now and December 3 to get Governor Richardson on the ballot in New York.”

The full email is after the jump.  read more »

According to The Huffington Post, Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson have all announced that they'll skip a December 10th debate, to be hosted by CBS News in Los Angeles, unless the network can come to an agreement with its striking employees.

Note that all four candidates' statements refer to those on strike as "workers" (Hillary gets the word in three times in two sentences), which sounds better than saying you're supporting news media professionals.

Editor's Note: This post has been corrected from an earlier version. 

In a lengthy interview with George Stephanopoulos that aired on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Fred Thompson became the latest endangered presidential candidate to invoke John Kerry’s name.

Asked what kind of showing he will need to make in Iowa, where he now hovers around 10 percent in polls, Mr. Thompson replied, “It’s hard to say. But I’m planning on doing well. I think John Kerry had about nine percent at this stage of the game and went on to win. So, you know, Iowa changes sometimes in a very short order.”  read more »

Edwards and Obama leapt at the chance to take Clinton to task for what they said was her inability to talk straight with the American people.  read more »

Leon Simmons was sitting outside City Hall Park, selling Poland Spring bottled water ($1), reading the Staten Island Advance, and wearing an "I Heart BX" shirt. A one-man focus group!

In honor of the holiday, I asked Simmons who he thought Columbus would vote for if he were alive today.

“Honestly, one of the white guys.”

Why?

“Because he’s a white man” and “this country has been run by old white men since day one.”



“Old white men, old good old boys club has run this country in the fucking ground. Period. Time for a change. Either a woman or somebody else. It’s time for a change.”

Now that New Mexico’s Pete Domenici is retiring after six terms, Bill Richardson has a tough call to make.  read more »

I just chatted with Bill Richardson’s volunteer state coordinator, Steve Bulko, who said he was optimistic about Richardson‘s prospects despite being on enemy turf.

“He comes in second in New Hampshire, we got enough time between that to filter down to the people voting on February 5th, it’s anybody’s game at that point."

Lefty bloggers sell the Democrat's Iraq policy—but not his candidacy—in a new web video.  read more »

Governor Bill Richardson has found the day's most creative way to attack the Bush administration.

In an email his campaign just sent out to reporters titled "Governor Bill Richardson Statement on New England Patriots Spying Incident,"  Richardson is quoted as telling voters in Iowa today that "The President has been allowed to spy on Americans without a warrant, and our U.S. Senate is letting it continue. You know something is wrong when the New England Patriots face stiffer penalties for spying on innocent Americans than Dick Cheney and George Bush."

 

There are 18 candidates for president between the two parties, and Bill Richardson might just be the biggest disappointment of all of them.  read more »

The rules made it difficult for them to capitalize, but Mike Gravel handed his seven fellow Democrats a golden opportunity for a “Rudy moment” midway through tonight’s presidential forum.

The topic was the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the African-American community, but Mr. Gravel, the scattershot Alaska senator from a generation or two ago, used his time to plead for the legalization of drugs, arguing that those targeted by the federal government’s war on drugs are not criminals.  read more »

In a debate billed as a battle for the black vote, the Democratic candidates generally avoided any confrontation and each sought to present him or herself as the champion of the African American community.

Barack Obama, the first African American candidate with a real shot at the presidency, received a cheer when he walked onto the stage and used his remarks to call for greater accountability within the community. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has made it clear that she will not concede the black vote, received the night’s only standing ovation for saying that the country ignored the AIDS epidemic because it mostly impacted blacks.

For the most part, the frontrunners had strong showings.

(More on the debate after the jump.)  read more »

Bill Richardson's campaign is out with another one of those job interview spots. Richardson this time boasts about his credentials protecting New Mexico's environment. ("President Bush doesn't follow the Kyoto Treaty, but my state does.")

Richardson is clearly very comfortable in these fictitious job interviews and is good in front of the camera, making it that much harder to explain his distinctly un-stellar turn recently on Meet The Press.

Asked yesterday during a Town Hall-style event in Red Oak, Iowa about what to do about Iraq, Hillary Clinton made the familiar argument that the troops needed to be extricated from a civil war. But she also added some notably optimistic comments about the soldiers' recent success in the mostly Sunni Al Anbar province where Al Qaeda has its stronghold.

"The war is 360 degrees, there is no battlefield," she said. "So I want to get our combat troops out of a sectarian, civil war. And I have also said, and I somewhat do differ with some of my other colleagues, I think you have to take a hard look at the situation we are in. We are making some progress it turns out, in what is called Al Anbar province against al Qaeda, and the reason we are is that our military leaders have learned a lot in the last several years there and they have made common cause with some of the tribal leaders, who don't like Al Qaeda any more than we do because Al Qaeda is also going after them."

The Iraq advisor to John McCain, who last week called Clinton's plan to revoke authorization for the war the "the worst possible idea that anybody could have," basically said the same thing to me in a recent interview.

Clinton clearly disagrees with McCain on what type of force should be left in Iraq to fight Al Qaeda. McCain strongly backs President Bush's so called surge of about 20,000 troops while Hillary says it will be a vastly reduced force.

Some other Democratic candidates, most notably, Bill Richardson, have called for a complete withdrawal of all combat and residual forces. Hillary explained yesterday why she disagrees.

"We don't want Al Qaeda to get a foothold in Iraq. They weren't there before but they're there now," she said. "So we may need to leave some troops to deal with the Al Qaeda remnant, primarily situated in Al Anbar. They are the ones who mostly are attacking our troops, attacking the markets, attacking the mosques, because they do the very dramatic and fiery suicide bombings that kill so many Iraqis and kill our young men and women."

John Edwards prevailed as the winner of a potentially influential, privately-held caucus of influential fund-raisers and activists in San Francisco last week, besting Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson, all of whom made personal appeals to the group.

According to an attendee, Hillary’s session in front of the group's approximately 120 members went over extremely well, especially when she talked about gay rights. But when it came time for the “caucus-goers” to choose their candidate, she failed to make it past the first cut.

I have the whole back story here.

In a potentially significant show of strength, John Edwards emerged as the winner last week in a caucus of influential San Francisco fund-raisers and community activists.  read more »

Chances are no one will remember anything from the lead-off Democratic debate.  read more »

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson doesn't want to peak too soon.

"Well, I can't compete Senator Clinton and Obama. I don't think anyone can," he said during a round-table with reporters after he spoke at the National Action Network this afternoon in midtown. "But I don't believe money or rock-star status is going to win this election."

He added, "I don't want to surface to the top right now. This race is 10 months away. All of you are obsessed with these numbers. On fund-raising, I did respectably well. Any other year, without these rock-star fund-raising figures, my figure would have been considered impressive. Now, it's just respectable."

I asked Richardson to compare his foreign policy experience to that of Rudy Giuliani, who is selling himself as the security candidate.  read more »

Ross Cohen explains why soldiers are sick of politicians.  read more »

A day after they ditched a planned FOX debate, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards will participate in a "virtual town hall" discussion this evening in the (presumably) more ideologically friendly confines of Air America radio.

The Big Three, along with Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich, will engage in a conversation entirely dedicated to the subject of Iraq and co-hosted by MoveOn.Org. Air America will be streaming it live 7:00 p.m to 8:30 p.m. tonight.

Said newly minted radio mogul Mark Green in an email: "We expect an historic night in what promises to be a defining election."

--Jason Horowitz

Bill Richardson came to New York looking for cash, and at least a little recognition.    read more »

Budget negotiations between Eliot Spitzer and Joe Bruno didn't go well today.

The long-delayed confirmation of the state environmental commissioner, Pete Grannis, passed a major hurdle.

Mike Bloomberg blamed the free market for a lack of taxis in the outer boroughs.

The guy leading the production of an upcoming anti-Hillary movie says despite some bumps in the road, "My organization is not in debt."

A union representing half the state employees in NJ denounced attacks made by other unions against labor boss and former Corzine girlfriend Carla Katz.

It's a nail-biter in Iowa.

Liza Saber thinks Bill Richardson has the best resume of any Democratic presidential candidate, but she's not sold on him yet.

Dennis Kucinich invited two critics of the new Yankees stadium plan to testify in congress.

The son of the Westchester Rockland County Assemblyman who recently died said he'll run for his dad's seat in the May 1 special election.

Rapper Snoop Dogg needs some kind of diplomatic intervention in order to get into the U.K.

PoliticsTV is counting down the best political ads of all time, starting this week.

And pictured above is Bill Richardson in New York.

-- Azi Paybarah

At last night's Bill Richardson event, the honor of introducing the first Hispanic to run for President in a major party was supposed to go to Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, according to an advisory from Carrion's office.

But then, it seems, things got complicated. Carrion has already endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. A photo of him next to Richardson, presumably, would have made a statement that the Clinton campaign might not have appreciated just now.

(Carrion, it should be noted, has acted very aggressively in the past to bat down rumors of dalliances with other candidates).

For whatever reason, Carrion cancelled, leaving Richardson to be introduced by one of the event's organizers.

A spokeswoman for Carrion emailed to explain: "He had a family issue that he needed to deal with." -- Azi Paybarah

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who is running for President, has a simple campaign strategy: be uncool.

"I'm Bill Richardson, but I'm not a rock star," Richardson said last night at an event organized by DL21C on Manhattan's West Side. His talk, at times, felt like a recitation of his resume. Which I suppose is what you can expect from someone who has, at various times, been a governor, Congressman, federal energy secretary and hostage negotiator.

After what felt like an hour-long Q&A with the jam-packed audience at Zanzibar, Richardson, chugging water and breaking a sweat, conceded he's not going to overtake Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John Edwards. At least not yet.

"Here's my last point," he said. "Here's my last point. Here's my last point. I need your help. All right. Now, if I can't get it today, keep your powder dry. This is ten months away."

-- Azi Paybarah

Every four years, a special class of candidates emerges from among the contestants in the Presidenti  read more »

Competency usually doesn’t win Presidential elections.  read more »

Following up on my post from yesterday, about the "grassroots" "campaign" to "draft" New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson into the "wide-open" race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, I received an email at the end of the day yesterday containing the following statement:

"I am very encouraged and gratified by the support of these Nevada leaders for my potential candidacy for President," stated Governor Bill Richardson. "Support at the grassroots level is the single most important factor for any potential Presidential candidate, because the American people will decide the leader and the direction they want for this country."

"Right now I am concentrating on preparing for the upcoming 2007 New Mexico State Legislative Session and my responsibilities as Governor of New Mexico. I will be making my decision whether to seek the Presidency in the New Year."

Come on Bill. Why so coy?

-- Andrew Rice

A little story about me: Many years ago, back when George W. Bush was just the agreeable governor of Texas, I used to work for a Washington weekly newspaper called The Hill, covering the Democrats in Congress. I dealt with a lot of press secretaries and, as a result, ended up getting stuck on a lot of mass-email lists. I quit the job and moved to New York, but for a long time the all-capitalized subject lines kept materializing in my inbox: "DEMOCRATIC WHIP BONIOR ATTACKS..."; "SENATOR CLELAND PROPOSES..."

It seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth to unsubscribe, and gradually, as mailing lists got updated and press secretaries moved on, the press releases came less and less often. Eventually, one holdout remained: the Democratic Governors Association. No matter what I did, or what far corner of the world I went to, the DGA followed me, keeping me up to date on the doings of the likes of Jennifer Granholm and Rod Blagojevich. A lot of the press releases concerned New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, which was only natural, considering that he was the chairman of the organization from 2004 until earlier this month, and, as everyone knows, is interested in running for president in 2008. At first, these self-promoting missives were annoying, just more junk mail that squirmed through the spam filter. But eventually the DGA's persistent updates became kind of touching--reminders of a time when I was younger and peace and surpluses reigned throughout the land.

Then, just yesterday, something strange happened. Right around 5 p.m., a message popped up in my inbox. It was from the something called the "2008 Presidential Draft Committee," and the subject line read: "ADVISORY: NEVADANS TO MAKE MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT 2008." The message coyly disclosed that "more than 50 prominent Nevadans" would be unveiling something this morning, and noted that "Nevada is scheduled to be the second state in the nation to hold a nomination contest, a caucus."

Initially, I assumed this had to do with the fact I was writing the Politicker this week. But then I realized that the address this mysterious message came to, my personal email account, was not the same address I put up on this website. (Sorry--I learned my lesson about mailing lists...)

So lo and behold, I sit down at the computer this morning, and I am greeted by the following message:

NEVADANS CALL FOR RICHARDSON CANDIDACY

Form "Draft Richardson Committee"

Las Vegas, NV--Seventy prominent Nevadans called on New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today to seek the Presidency in 2008.

"Nevada will be a lynch-pin in the Democratic Presidential nomination process in 2008 and many Nevadans believe Bill Richardson is the best choice to lead our party", stated "Draft Committee" Chairman Reynaldo Martinez, a resident of Incline Village, and former chief of staff to U.S. Senator Harry Reid.

I wonder how these grassroots activists will convince Richardson to run?

UPDATE: Commenter Bouldin notes the that release uses an archaic, and rather unfortunate (Freudian?), spelling of the word "linchpin."

-- Andrew Rice

A cautionary tale about discussing Hillary Clinton in a world in which every person associated with the senator has become a human tarot card:

Last Tuesday evening, longtime Hillary pal and confidante Susan Thomases sent guests into a frenzy at a small meet-and-greet for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson when she indicated that Hillary Clinton wasn't, in fact, running for president.

According to two guests who were present at the "friend-raiser," which was hosted by Democratic donor Jane Hoffman at her Upper East Side townhouse, Thomases made the statement shortly after the first course had been eaten and cleared.

Richardson had been making his big presidential pitch to the guests, when he interrupted himself to apologize to Ms. Thomases -- a well-known Clinton supporter -- for putting her in an uncomfortable position. To the surprise of the guests-- who included Ms. Hoffman's parents, Democratic donor-couple David and Sylvia Steiner, real estate developer Dan Brodsky and his wife Esty, hedge funder Terry Meehan, and, later in the evening, Governor Jon Corzine -- Thomases said that he need not worry because Hillary wasn't running for president.

"The way she put it was, [Hillary's] husband thinks she's running, many of her friends think she's running, but she's not running," said one of the guests, who asked not to be identified. "It was almost like an atom bomb dropped on the room.... My jaw just fell to the floor."

Ms. Thomases, reached by phone just a few minutes ago, denied saying anything either explosive or new. "No, I did not say that. I didn't say her friends think she's running," she said. "I said, 'She's not running, she's running for the Senate, and that's what she's doing, period.' There was nothing awkward about it, because she's running for the senate, which something you all know. It was nothing new, I just repeated the same old."

But at least some of the guests are still convinced that there was at least some significance to what Thomases said.

"I know other supporters of hers think she has to run because she loses a lot of her power if she's not in the race," said one of the guests. "A lot of her power is imputed to the possibility that she's the nominee or the next president. So she will string this out as long as she can, but she may not be running."

-- Lizzy Ratner