Monday, June 18, 2007

At least his name is in the title

Via WaPo - Richardson Is Counting on Nevada, a State He Has to Himself
Gov. Bill Richardson has found a second home in Nevada.

The two-hour flight is not a short hop from the New Mexico governor's mansion in Santa Fe, but Richardson hopes Nevada will become a critical aspect of his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"You're now important," he told a group of Las Vegas Democrats last week. "You used to not be that important."
Honestly, I find that to be an interesting thing to say. Even thought it is undoubtedly true, it seems odd to me to tell a group of potential supporters that they are only important because their caucus is now the second in the nation. Oh well, Richardson probably doesn't have a snowball's chance of winning the nomination anyway.

In fact, the article is really more about how most of the top tier candidates are still basically ignoring Nevada even though it was moved up to second in the nation.
The decision by Nevada Democrats to move their caucuses to Jan. 19, 2008, making them second after Iowa's on the party's nominating calendar, was supposed to make the state -- better known for gamblers and showgirls -- a prime destination for presidential candidates. But so far, the gregarious New Mexico governor has been the only one to make it a priority.
Maybe Richardson can make a good showing in Nevada and get himself some positive media attention, but I'm not really holding my breath at this point.

2 comments:

Brian L. said...

I once thought Richardson might be the strongest dark horse Dem candidate, but he's really underperformed in his rare national TV appearances in recent weeks.

Jan said...

I agree. On paper, Richardson sounds like a strong candidate, but he doesn't seem to perform well where it counts, at least where it counts in terms of getting voter support.