{"id":1168,"date":"2007-01-29T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-29T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/01\/richardson-makes-stop-in-nevada-democrat-who-saw-him-speak-shares-her-thoughts-on-his-candidacy\/"},"modified":"2007-01-29T09:40:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-29T15:40:00","slug":"richardson-makes-stop-in-nevada-democrat-who-saw-him-speak-shares-her-thoughts-on-his-candidacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/01\/richardson-makes-stop-in-nevada-democrat-who-saw-him-speak-shares-her-thoughts-on-his-candidacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Richardson makes stop in Nevada; Democrat who saw him speak shares her thoughts on his candidacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gov. Bill Richardson made his first public presidential campaign trip this weekend, stopping in Northern Nevada<\/st1:place> and speaking to hundreds of Democrats there. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Nevada<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> will hold the nation\u2019s second presidential nominating event for the 2008 election \u2013 a caucus on Jan. 19. The first is in Iowa<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> on Jan. 14.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

According to the Albuquerque Tribune<\/a> and Reno Gazette-Journal<\/a>, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> sounded themes that are becoming familiar to his campaign: He\u2019s an underdog, a moderate and a Westerner; he\u2019ll outwork the other candidates.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI am a westerner who supports the rugged individualism of the West,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:city> told a group of locals in rural Minden<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, according to the Tribune. \u201cOnly 15 percent of America<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> lives in rural areas, and as a candidate, I\u2019m going to pay attention to rural areas. I know this is Republican territory, but in a primary, I\u2019m going to campaign everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:city> knows that Nevada<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, as the only early Western primary state, is a state in which he has to compete.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to do extremely well,\u201d the Tribune quoted him as saying. \u201cI have to do more than respectably. I\u2019m not sure I can carry Nevada<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, but I\u2019m going to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson, who was the first presidential candidate to hire staff in Nevada<\/st1:state>, is also the first candidate to accept invitations to two presidential forums in that state, one on Feb. 21 in Carson City<\/st1:city> and the other on March 24 in Las Vegas<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>, the Gazette-Journal reported. Richardson<\/st1:city> announced his acceptance of invitations while speaking to Democrats at the R<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>eno-Tahoe<\/st1:placename> International<\/st1:placename> Airport<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

At the annual Douglas County Democrats\u2019 Turn Nevada Blue dinner on Saturday, he spoke about being Hispanic.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIf course, I want to be the first Hispanic president,\u201d the Tribune quoted Richardson<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> as saying. \u201cBut I\u2019d like to think that my story is the story of every American, of getting a chance to prove yourself no matter what your ethnic, religious or economic background, and making the most of every God-given opportunity that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Vicki Bates, a prominent Democrat in Douglas County who is active in tha<\/a>t county\u2019s party<\/a>, was kind enough to share her thoughts after listening to Richardson speak Saturday night. My thanks to Vicki for helping give New Mexicans some perspective on what Democrats in another state think about our governor\u2019s presidential ambitions.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what she had to say:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was impressive, but it\u2019s still early<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By Vicki Bates<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Governor Richardson was warmly received by the 220 attendees at the sold-out \u201cTurn Nevada Blue\u201d Douglas County Democrats\u2019 dinner. His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and experience really impressed us, and his concern for the issues common to us all, and us westerners in particular, is most welcome.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

People here aren\u2019t necessarily ready to jump on the bandwagon yet – it\u2019s early and we have a lot of other candidates to hear from – but he was perhaps moved to the top of the list of contenders for many. The words I heard most often from those I talked to were \u201cimpressive\u201d and \u201cpractical,\u201d and no one expressed any reservations about him.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Former General Wesley Clark spoke first and gave a rousing speech that was sort of like a pep rally. At first, it almost sounded like he was endorsing Gov. Richardson, but as the speech went on, he sounded more like a candidate himself, though he\u2019s still undeclared. He, too, was well-received.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Gov. Richardson\u2019s style was more pleasant and conversational, though he got charged up a few times too. He not only brought up issues and concerns that need to be addressed in this country, but used practical examples of how he\u2019s addressed such concerns in the state of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> and during his diplomatic career.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

His support of getting out of Iraq within the year, using more diplomacy in our foreign policy, universal health care, preservation of water and public lands, the environment, renewable energy and new technology, unions, entrepreneurship, and higher education being available to all received generous applause.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

We\u2019re also grateful for his support for not bringing nuclear waste to Yucca<\/st1:placename> Mountain<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>. Yucca<\/st1:placename> Mountain<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> was not the nearly impermeable, solid piece of granite that was expected. Instead, there are numerous fissures, and water percolates through there quite rapidly. Once the casks erode, as they eventually will, it would destroy the aquifer in the area forever, and no one knows how far the damage would spread.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not familiar enough with New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s situation to be able to judge how successful his efforts as your congressman and governor have been. The four nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize are endorsement enough of his international efforts. His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is head and shoulders above any other candidate\u2019s, and he comes across as very down to earth, knowledgeable and practical – a guy you could sit down and have a great conversation with. The consensus seemed to be that he\u2019s a very strong candidate, but if for some reason he doesn\u2019t win the presidential nomination, we\u2019d at least like have to have him in the cabinet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson made his first public presidential campaign trip this weekend, stopping in Northern Nevada and speaking to hundreds of Democrats there. Nevada will hold the nation\u2019s second presidential nominating event for the 2008 election \u2013 a caucus on Jan. 19. The first is in Iowa on Jan. 14. According to the Albuquerque Tribune […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}