Richardson Grok

New Richardson Ad Takes a Presidential Tone

By Emily Esterson, 7-23-07

Is Bill Richardson getting serious? Just hours before the scheduled CNN/YouTube debate, presidential candidate and New Mexico Governor Richardson posted a new, and far more “presidential candidate-esque” ad on his website. The black and white ad depicts rows of soldiers, the governor walking amongst them, while a voice over describes the National Guard life insurance bill passed in New Mexico. The only place you can see the ad as of this writing is on his website, but I’m pretty certain it will be all over the youtube wire waves tomorrow.

I got my very own Bill Richardson fundraiser invitation in the mail this week, from master fundraiser Vince Baca, who’s a New Mexican long involved in nonprofit work around the state. The contribution is optional but Vince “guarantees we won’t be disappointed.” The governor himself will be there, at least for a little while, in between South Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

Despite his experience as a border state governor, the Des Moines Register writes that Republican candidate Duncan Hunter things Richardson is wrong about the fence, as we border state residents call it. The governor told participants at a Des Moines event hosted by the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy that a fence separating the U.S. and Mexico would do little to stop problems. “If you have a 10-foot-wall, which is what it is, you know what’s going to happen? Eleven-foot ladders,” said Richardson. Hunter supported legislation to build a 14-mile barricade between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.

He may be trailing the top fundraisers, but Richardson’s personal assets have soared according to the Associated Press. As detailed by the report, the New Mexico governor is worth from $3.5 million and up to $10.2 million, according to a financial disclosure filed in May with the Federal Election Commission. When he worked for Clinton, he was worth between $350,002 and $750,000 with a condominium in Santa Fe worth at least $250,001.

I’ve said it before in this column but I’ll repeat it: What we New Mexicans know about Richardson the rest of the country is finding out, one interview and one debate at a time. Salon‘s Walter Shapiro weighed in on Richardson this week, touching on a number of ho-hum themes, at least for those who’ve been following the candidate for some time, He has experience. He’s not “lean and hungry” like the other candidates (Shapiro called him round-faced). And he’s a bit off the cuff. Rarely do you see the governor, whether he’s addressing the state legislators or the North Koreans, with a prepared set of sound bites he’s able to stick to. Most poignantly, Shapiro noted that the governor is “thin skinned” and recounted how he launched into an attack on another Salon reporter who’s piece he didn’t like during the interview. Well, if you lived in New Mexico and covered state government and the fourth floor of the Roundhouse (as we call the state legislature and the governor’s office), you’d have already known that. Richardson’s ad libbing could be his downfall, or the charm that propels him onwards. We’ll see more tonight on CNN.

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