This diary is part of the candidate series on MyDD for Bill Richardson. I am Californian supporter of Richardson. I am not part of his campaign.
Congressman, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of Energy and in his second term as Governor of New Mexico after a landslide victory in November 2006, Governor Bill Richardson is running for President to heal America and restore our place in the world. He possesses the experience, vision and leadership skills to be a great President.
Richardson is goal-oriented, assertive and confident. He has the ability to quickly evaluate a situation but is not rigid in his thinking and will modify policy when necessary. He takes a practical approach to governing, focusing on solutions to problems rather than ideology.
I want to add to the analysis of the proposed California Republican power grab initiative. Should it pass, we could lose about 19 of California's 55 electoral college votes to the Rep candidate.
If the initiative qualifies for the June 2008 California primary election, we will of course fight it tooth and nail. But all is not lost if it passes. We can still win in 2008 in a landslide. We don't have to have Rep Presidents forever. However, we must nominate a candidate that can win in solid Red states - and the best candidate for that task is Bill Richardson.
Are you poor? Black? Hispanic? Congratulations! The city of San Diego wants to look at everything you own without a warrant! All of this is in the context of ensuring that there are no "cheaters" and that money distributed to the poor by the state is being done legitimately. This is actually a Constitutional question that was upheld in 1971. Oddly enough, and sit down for this one because it's shocking, it's only ever applied to the poor and not the literally millions of other entities, whether corporate or agricultural, who receive the same type of largesse.
If waiving one's Fourth Amendment rights based on the receipt of government funds were applied outside of the impoverished, most people would instantly see the problem. Given the number of people who benefit from some kinds of government subsidy, the government could simply abrogate the Bill or Rights through its spending power. This can't be right. And whether or not it's unconstitutional, certainly these kinds of searches without cause are bad policy, for the same reasons. As soon as executives at Archer Daniels Midland agree to waive their Fourth Amendment rights, we can start talking about welfare recipients.
I know that the Fourth Amendment is no longer operative, so this may be something of a moot point. But it's so clear that those quick to jump on the indigent for "ripping off the taxpayer" has no similar fervor for those in corporate America. I was astonished when I heard Bill Richardson use the phrase "corporate welfare" at the Yearly Kos Presidential Forum. Maybe some of our more progressive cities might want to start barging in to some corporate offices just to make sure their books are the same as they claim. Who knows, maybe we can end welfare as we know it again.
First, we are on a financial course that will allow us to both fully fund efforts in the early primary and caucus states, and also participate vigorously in all the February 5 contests, including large states like California, New Jersey, New York, Georgia and Missouri.
Well, that's good, but you have known that for a while. Where is the investment in California? Why have there been no staffing announcements? The media has been busy talking about your ability to dictate the television advertising pace with your large amounts of money. However, there is little talk about how your fundraising allows for early field investment.
Hillary Clinton may just run away with the thing, unless you start organizing here. Last week she announced her latest round of hires and now has staff in both LA and San Francisco.
Poll numbers aren't looking that good either. The latest SUSA numbers, released today show Clinton leading with 49%. Obama is at 24% and Edwards 14%. It is early yet, but Clinton is moving to solidify her lead while you stand by.
BTW Edwards is not completely off the hot seat here, but he obviously has a lot fewer resources to bring to bear right now. Richardson has spent a lot of time in the state already.
Its time for Obama to invest in California and not just come here and pick up a bunch of checks.
Highlighting his considerable foreign expertise, Governor Bill Richardson last week set forth a path to avoiding military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program. Richardson called on Bush administration to stop threatening Iran with "incendiary rhetoric," and instead recognize our interests in engaging Iran diplomatically.
Richardson's week ended with a well-received speech before Latino leaders in Florida. Decrying the tone of the debate in the Senate on the immigration bill and how Latinos are portrayed in the media, Richardson asked:
Do you notice that when they depict immigrants, they have someone crossing a wall, jumping as if they are criminals? How about the farmers who break their backs working or those who are cleaning the toilets and working at the hotel where we stay? How about the American media covering the immigrant who died protecting his country?
Also of note, Pollster.com added Richardson to its Top Democrats charts, joining Clinton, Obama and Edwards. Charles Franklin of Pollster.com stated, "For other Democratic candidates, we've not seen a substantial upturn anywhere. Richardson stands alone in that respect at the moment."
For a full review of Richardson's week, continue reading.
This was a significant week in Bill Richardson's campaign for President, with a major address on climate change and how to end the bloodshed in Iraq.
It was also a significant week for peace and stability in Korea and Asia - which highlights Richardson's expertise in foreign affairs and his diplomatic skills. With Richardson as President we get two for the price of one - a can-do leader on domestic issues and an experienced diplomat that knows how to bring people and nations together.
So much of the news on the Presidential campaign is impacted by how the political editors, commentators and talking heads in D.C. and N.Y.C. view the race. They often determine the press coverage that occurs, and can have their biases.
I'm from California and supporting Bill Richardson. I want to share commentary on Richardson from two active Democrats from New Mexico who have watched him in office for years. These commentaries were originally posted on DailyKos and MyDD. They give you a much better sense of Richardson and his record than what you'll find elsewhere.
Bill Richardson was in Los Angeles yesterday talking mass transit. He was touting the success of commuter light rail in New Mexico and said light rail would be equal to highways in a Richardson administration.
“I believe light rail is for the future,” he said. “The president can be a partner, working with state and city and local communities in joint funding.”
This obviously is a nice compliment to recent Calitics discussions about High Speed Rail in California and the broader concerns over responsible growth management and community development. But what strikes me most is that Bill Richardson isn't talking about Iraq. He's free to talk about things like light rail because for him, Iraq is no longer an issue. Bill Richardson unequivocally wants all troops out of Iraq now. He thinks that congress should de-authorize the war, and if he were to become president, all American personnel would leave Iraq. That's it, next question. Say what you will about the rest of his platform and framing (I have), but by dispatching with Iraq and leaving no doubt about his plan and commitment to ending the war, Richardson is free to talk about everything else. You know...the stuff that actually makes up a presidency.
Starting with Hillary Clinton back in February, several presidential candidates so far this year have visited Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA for a one-on-one chat (Clinton) or a full-fledged townhall meeting (McCain, Richardson and Edwards) in front of 1,000 or so Google employees. While we always hear about Google executives being a great source of Silicon Valley cash for the candidates, these forums are more akin to, as Carla Marinucci puts it,
the New Hampshire pancake breakfast, the Iowa school auditorium, [or] the South Carolina church hall.
Yes, retail politics IS happening right here in California and, thanks to Google's YouTube channel (umm, yeah they have one) the forums are available for all of us to see. They give us a rare glimpse of the candidates off script (rare for those of us not in N.H. or Iowa or permanently glued to CSPAN that is.) And while the candidates do their best to stick to the basic elements of their stump speeches, it's the unexpected little moments that are most interesting, such as Hillary Clinton's sense of humor, the warm war hero's welcome John McCain receives or the stumbles of Richardson (calling on Google to go solar when they already have) and Edwards (it was in this forum that he mistakenly claimed to have read the Iraq NIE.) And yes the candidates even talk California such as when Hillary repeated her praise for California's having kept electricity usage steady over the past two decades while nationwide it's increased 50%.
Want to get a close-up and personal look at the candidates, check out the videos over the flip:
Flanked by local Latino leaders and a large contingent of politicians from his home state, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson formally entered the 2008 presidential campaign today, saying that his thick resume offered him an unmatched ability to tackle the country's problems at home and abroad.
The Democratic candidate, who has been running for months and has already aired campaign ads, made his announcement inside downtown Los Angeles' Millennium Biltmore Hotel. Richardson noted that John F. Kennedy accepted his 1960 Democratic nomination for president at the Biltmore.
Richardson is still running a distant fourth at this point, but he does well when he talks about Iraq and foreign policy. He begins to lose some street cred when he talks about taxation. But whatever you want to say about him, he has a resume that is simply unmatched. He would be a solid nominee, but seems that he is a bit too comfortable with his DLC status. It is interesting that he chose to announce in California. So, did this help to get people to consider him? I don't know. What about you folks in SoCal?
Over the flip, check out the Governor's interview with California bloggers.
Of the top four candidates for the Democratic nomination former Sen. John Edwards is the only candidate who does not have any paid staff or campaign offices in the nation's largest state. The campaigns of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Gov. Bill Richardson all have devoted resources on the ground in California including offices and paid staffers.
Delegate rich California, with a population of 38 million people, will deliver a mega amount of delegates on February 5, 2008. In the latest SUSA poll Sen. Hillary Clinton has a 21 point lead in California over Sen. Barack Obama with Edwards finishing third with 15%.
"The Edwards insurgent road map is clear: convert progressive positions into labor endorsements, win Iowa, ride a big momentum wave in terms of press coverage and online money and then slingshot out to the bigger states" like California, said Democratic consultant Chris Lehane, a veteran of the Clinton White House who worked for Al Gore in 2000 and for 2004 presidential candidates John Kerry and Wesley Clark.
Democratic consultant Bill Carrick, who's worked on presidential campaigns for Bill Clinton, Dick Gephardt and Ted Kennedy, said if Edwards stumbles in Iowa "he won't have a California campaign."
However, Carrick said even while concentrating on the earlier states Edwards must establish a campaign in California if he is to take advantage of early momentum.
"If you don't have any preparation in California ... it makes it all the harder to be competitive here if you do get here," he said.
Carrick recalled that in 1988 Gephardt, the former Missouri senator, won Iowa and finished second in the New Hampshire primary, but lacking money he didn't have the organization in other states to be competitive and fell out of the race.
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Edwards and Kerry carried California by double-digits in 2004, but surveys this year show the former senator trailing Clinton and Obama.
With Edwards' fundraising lagging millions behind Obama and Clinton he must pick his spots, said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
"You cannot campaign in California without spending tens of millions of dollars," Cain said. "He's got to think long and hard before he diverts money to California."
Yesterday, Governor Bill Richardson announced that he will be making his candidacy for president official on Monday with a speech at the Los Angeles Press Club. Speaking on The L.A.-based Stephanie Miller Show this morning, Richardson joked that Monday's announcement of something we already knew is merely his third "bite at the apple...most candidates are on their eighth or so."
Monday's speech also gives him an opportunity to cast Los Angeles, and California more generally, as central to his campaign for president. As he said to Miller this morning (approximate transcript, I was in the car...):
Being Hispanic, I have a real opportunity in California. Especially now that the primary is so early, it's even more important. Usually candidates come in to pick your pockets but this year, California is really going to play a role.
The math is easy: a/o the 2004 census, California has the largest Hispanic population of any state with 12.4 million or 35% of the state's entire population. Because of this, Richardson really sees California's earlier primary as a potential lift to his campaign and his eager engagement with the state has reflected this. Not only was he the most specific in San Diego when asked to speak to California issues ("You guys have a traffic problem..." ) but he's also been directly involved with ATM Watch, responding to Californians's questions via video, and more recently he appeared at a labor union in Los Angeles doing what's virtually unheard of in California: old fashioned retail politics.
In an editorial today, The San Diego Union Tribune takes issue with John Edwards for being willing to consider an "excess-profits, excess-income tax." The editorial complains of Edwards "hawking class warfare" and complains that a rich person has no business being concerned about class issues. In closing, it does us all the service of "call[ing] this toxic idea by its proper name. It's a tax on performance. It's a way to punish the high-achievers in our economy in the hopes that we might be able to discourage them from trying so hard and achieving so much."
I'll refute this nonsense on the flip, but first the kicker:
The good news is that at least one of Edwards' competitors, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, had the good sense to shoot down the idea, promote himself as a taxpayer, and chide Democrats for proposing taxes as the solution to every societal problem - and non-problem.
On Sunday, a few bloggers from across the state talked with Governor Bill Richardson. You can find hekebelos's transcript here. Generally, I'd like to say that like Sen. Dodd, Gov. Richardson knew his stuff. The guy is no empty suit. I think the fact that our main candidates are solid on the issues is one thing of which we can be very proud.
As hekebelos mentioned, we talked about a wide variety of issues. On some issues, Governor Richardson spoke with a voice that progressive activists will take heart in. On others, well, we were not as satisfied. To start with the good, Mr. Richardson has said that he would like no residual force left in Iraq. That's good, but some of us were concerned about what exactly no residual force meant. Well, he was completely unambiguous, it means soldiers, contractors, everybody. He would leave forces in the region to respond to situations that may arise, but as for Iraq? We are just too large of a target to remain.
On the other hand, I was somewhat less comfortable with his rhetoric on taxes. To me, taxes are the price you pay for a pleasant society. I don't think the good Gov. is truly willing to publicly acknowledge that. He talks about growing the economic base rather than raising taxes. He wants to use tax incentives to encourage high wages, and good labor standards. That's all well and good, but I'm just not sure how we deal with the falling value of the dollar and our growing deficit.
The speeches the candidates gave on the floor of the CDP convention this weekend were peppered with allusions to California but rarely in any substantive way. The "good morning, California Democrats!" here and the "We need to make sure Nancy Pelosi remains Speaker of the House!" there. Not surprisingly, the speeches were variations on their stump speeches, which they give everywhere.
That's where the post-speech press conferences came in. Many of the journalists asking questions were local and were interested in how the primary being moved up impacted the candidates' campaign strategies. The candidates' responses said a lot about each of them as candidates. You had the extremely disciplined Hillary Clinton rave about California when it came to discussing the endorsements of local Assemblymembers but when it came to answering a specific California-based question (from our friends at Speak Out CA!), she shifted to standard stump speech talking points. John Edwards, who has a healthy skepticism of the media (I wonder why, he was asked about hedge funds and haircuts for crying out loud) was less forthcoming and even a bit dismissive, although he did engage in some primary strategy speculation. And the down in the polls Bill Richardson was the most eager to engage with the local press in hopes of gaining some traction. He had some great answers including referring to California as an "ATM machine" ( we didn't pay him to do it, I swear!), offering solutions for California's transportation problem and the gem "if I go to every living room in California I'd be dead."
The videos are over the flip and of course at ATM Watch as well.
I was feeling pretty tired, so instead of thinking and writing, I made a collage! How fun! So, these are just some pictures from the weekend. Clockwise from top left, 1)Bill Richardson talking to hekebelos, dday, and blogswarm, 2) Charlie Brown blogging at Blue House at the Brew House, 3) Former Sen. Mike Gravel giving a speech Friday night, 4) Chris Dodd with dday, 5) Charlie Brown holding court at Karl Strauss Brewery, 6) Fabian Nunez with Hillary Clinton. In the center, Sen. Carole Migden is talking with a staffer before her energetic speech at the CYD caucus meeting.
So, I meant to include a picture of Jerry McNerney, but as I was playing with the thumbnails I accidentally grabbed a second Brown photo. Woops! Next time, Jerry. Any comments about the photos? Comment away!
I actually feel sorry for the Sunday morning candidates--including Edwards--because the hall isn't nearly as full. I mean, seriously--if you're from some place like Sacramento, wouldn't you want to take the opportunity to have a beautiful sunday afternoon in San Diego?
So would I. And that's exactly what I intend to do. But only after the speeches, and after I vote.
As expected, he is mostly playing up his diplomatic experience. He's also laying out his priorities of what he'll do as president. 1st day in office: out of Iraq, no residual troops. 2nd day in office: announce an Apollo energy program. 3rd day in office: plan to revitalize education. Minimum wage for teachers: $40,000/year. 4th day in office: universal healthcare. 5th day: jobs program.
We just had a group interview with Bill Richardson. Below is a transcript of sorts. Not included in the transcript is his response to my question on the US Attorney Scandal, where he said basically that Gonzales should resign and he would make sure that his AG would be a servant of the people, not a political flak.
Well, tonight is your chance! Go see the MoveOn Iraq War town hall debate tonight, and learn more about what all the candidates think about the war. I can guarantee you right now that there's one in your neck of the woods, so you don't have to go too far to see all the Democratic Presidential Candidates... But I can't guarantee how long space will last, as these parties are filling up fast!
So what are you waiting for? If you're in Orange County, go to one of our local debate parties tonight. If you're somewhere else, go ahead and find a party near you. You'll get to meet other progressive Democrats in your area, and you might just find the right candidate for you tonight. : )
