Richardson giving money in New Hampshire, allegedly to aid New Mexico re-election campaign

There’s more news on the Bill Richardson presidential campaign trail today.

His gubernatorial campaign has started a “Richardson for Governor” political committee in New Hampshire.

Bet you thought he was running for governor of New Mexico, right?

Right. That’s because he is.

So what’s this committee doing in New Hampshire?

According to the committee’s treasurer, Richard Bouley of Concord, N.H., “It was set up if he wants to give to candidate committees here.” That’s according to Steve Terrell of the Santa Fe New Mexican, who wrote today about the committee.

Bouley said the committee has, thus far, given $2,500 to the New Hampshire Senate Democratic Caucus, Terrell reported.

The blog New Mexico Matters has posted a copy of the document filed by committee in New Hampshire, which you can read by clicking here.

According to the document, the committee formed on Aug. 7, 2006. Its chairperson is David Contarino, the chair of the governor’s re-election campaign in New Mexico.

Bouley told Terrell the committee isn’t a precursor to a presidential committee, saying Richardson “has not announced he’s running for president.”

This one’s a bit to flagrant for my taste. Why would the Richardson for Governor campaign want to give money to anyone in New Hampshire? Why would it want to give money to anyone except other Democrats in New Mexico who might, in turn, aid in his re-election campaign?

There’s a reason current events and politics in New Hampshire aren’t mentioned on Richardson’s campaign Web site. They have nothing to do with his re-election campaign.

This is ridiculous at best and flagrant at worst. Shouldn’t there be campaign laws against this sort of thing?

What purpose would such a committee serve other than setting the stage for a presidential run? If it’s not that, is he setting up such committees in all 50 states? Or is it just in the state where he needs to garner the support to get a presidential campaign off the ground?