2008 Presidential Contender: Bill Richardson

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson recently threw his hat into the ring for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Richardson served 15 years in the House of Representatives before becoming U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and subsequently Energy Secretary under Bill Clinton. He recently began his second term as New Mexico's governor. He was first elected to this post in 2002 and then reelected last November by the widest margin of any gubernatorial candidate in that state's history, garnering 68 percent of the vote. Due to his previous ties to the Clinton Administration, he might be viewed as an acceptable alternative to Hillary Clinton, should her candidacy fizzle out.

Richardson is a member of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), an association of moderate Democrats, one of which he is well known to be. Being the governor of a state from the Southwest, a Republican-dominated region where Democrats would like to make inroads, could work to his advantage. However, he may have to answer for the fact that New Mexico switched from "blue" to "red" in the 2004 election (Gore carried it in 2000, but Bush took it in 2004).

Governors, in general, tend to do better than senators in their quest for the presidency, especially in recent elections. Four of the last five men to be elected president did so as either sitting governors (Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) or former governors (Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan). However, the last sitting senator to be elected president was John F. Kennedy in 1960. In the Democratic field of 2008, Bill Richardson is likely to be one of only two governors (the other is former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack), running against a host of senators. Therefore, although he is not currently considered to be one of his party's top-tier presidential prospects, he should not be thought of as a long shot either. Indeed, he could be the dark horse among the Democrats.

Comments

[Cara Valente-Compton]

Hi there, I am one of a group of Richardson supporters who are building a grassroots website for his presidential candidacy and I just wanted to say I enjoyed your post, and like your blog, very interesting, and true to form, common sense. I did want to make the one correction though, Governor Richardson won re-election by over 69% of the vote, carrying every county but one. I have witnessed as a resident of the state first hand how his policies which are the perfect balance of progressive and conservative have moved New Mexico in the right direction. I believe he can win this thing, but the money is going to be really challenging. Please feel free to stop by and check out our site, we have a coming soon page up now but once we finish the coding this weekend it will be up and running on Monday, fully interactive and if I may say so myself really snazzy!

If you would email me, too, I am interested in learning about "Blogburst"!

Thank you so much Terry!

Cara

[Randy T]

If a Democrat wins in 2008 then I hope that it is Richardson. He is defintely the best out of the current group of Democratic candidates in my opinion.

[Tim]

I've been a lifelong fan of Richardson. When I first heard of him and his childhood upbringings in Mexico City I was very impressed. It inspired me that a fellow Hispanic could achieve that level of success (at that time running for congress) and helped me to fight my way out of poverty and drug and gang infested barrio and into college. Now many of my friends I grew up with are either dead or in jail and had it not been for the early inspiration to make something out of myself I may have followed that fate. I owe much of what I have to watching a NM political rally on PBS one day skipping school. I have watched his career and always chuckled at the way the humble Hispanic in ill fitting suits could convince hardened killers to free hostages. Hes done many good things in NM and I hope he gets the nomination to do the same for the country.