Governor Richardson spent last night in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He was the first presidential candidate of this campaign season to visit the Cowboy State.
New West's Jackson Hole editor Gil Brady covered Governor Richardson's trip. Brady reported that the governor was asked why Wyoming voters should consider "him and his clean, alternative energy proposals" given the economic importance of fossil fuels in the state. Governor Richardson replied that he believes Wyoming, like New Mexico, has great potential to transition to wind power as a significant energy source:
The candidate added he was worried about greenhouse gas emissions "threatening Yellowstone's eco-system," encouraging Wyoming to convert its gangbusters coal production to cleaner methods. He also said the United States and Wyoming had to strike a balance between fossil fuels and clean energy to remain competitive with Japan.
The governor is having a lot of success with his efforts to reach out to voters and caucus-goers all over the West. Amanda Peacher of Boise weekly writes that even in the decidedly "red state" of Idaho, Democrats are becoming energized about his candidacy and what it could mean for their state and other western states:
What's the use of organizing for a Democratic presidential candidate in one of the reddest states in the nation? In the general election, not much, Idaho Democrats will admit. But Democrats are getting excited about the 2008 nomination because this time around, Idaho could actually make ripples in the outcome...
Gem State Dems agree that strong support for any one candidate will send the message that even in red-dominated Idaho, Democrats can get behind a blue candidate...
Some active Democrats say that if Clinton were to be the nominee, it could drive more steadfast Republicans to the polls and hurt local races. "People don't tend to like her as much around here," says [T.J.] Thomson [District 20 chairperson for Ada County Democrats]... "I think it would tend to pull out more of the Republican base."
Others say a Western nominee like Gov. Bill Richardson from New Mexico could help with Democratic races throughout the West. W. Lane Startin, from Twin Falls, is the volunteer grassroots director for Richardson's campaign. "We would have states in the West that will come into play if he is the candidate," says Startin. "Idaho I don't see going blue ... but I do think Richardson could run with a Western strategy out here." Startin is one of a handful of dedicated volunteers who are drawn to Richardson because they say he is in tune with the West...
"I think it's obvious from his platform strategies, from just being out here--he knows what's going on," he says. "A Richardson nomination would bring Western issues to the forefront. "What it would mean for Idaho is that a lot of the issues that aren't normally on the table at a national state will finally be highlighted," Startin says.
Speaking of Governor Richardson's efforts in the Western U.S., he is back in Nevada today and tomorrow. He spoke at the Nevada AFL-CIO Convention this morning, and this afternoon he is speaking at the Brookings Institute/ABC News/UNR Candidates Forum at University of Nevada, Reno. Later tonight, Governor Richardson is visiting Fernley, Nevada. The Leader-Courier of Lyon County reported on the upcoming event:
Fernley residents and citizens in neighboring communities are invited to meet Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson today (Aug. 22) at 7 p.m. at Fernley High School at 7 p.m.
This is the first visit by a presidential candidate to the City of Fernley. The New Mexico Governor will give a quick speech and then a meet and greet session with members of the public will follow. "I'm real excited for Fernley. Having a presidential candidate coming to Fernley, it means something. I think everyone should participate and not worry about party loyalties," said Maria Duran of the Fernley Democratic Club.
For more information on how you can attend this event and meet Governor Richardson, click here.
Democracy for New Mexico reported this morning that a study released yesterday by independent researchers from the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, the University of Utah, and the University of New Mexico gave good marks to New Mexico's new statewide paper ballot voting system:
Over eight in 10 voters rated their voting experience excellent or good and the report concluded that "New Mexico is on the cutting edge of election administration and has executive and local leadership forging aggressively ahead with the intent of building a better, strong, efficacious and more voter confident voting system." ...
According to researchers, New Mexico is the first state to move from a predominantly electronic voting system to a single durable paper ballot system statewide, using optical scanners. Governor Richardson, working closely with New Mexico election reform groups and key state legislators passed legislation in 2005 requiring all state elections to be conducted with a voter verifiable paper trail, but could allow for continued use of Direct Recording Electronic voting systems (DREs). Recognizing state and national concerns over continued use of DREs, during the 2006 legislative session Governor Richardson pushed for a single state-wide voting system using durable paper ballots, which represent the official record of the vote. The paper ballot system allows for recounts of New Mexico elections, which the DRE systems did not, and it also allows elections to be audited for accuracy and provide an environment that promotes greater voter confidence, which the previous electronic systems could not accommodate.
For more information on this issue, click here, and to read the entire independent report, click here.
Blogger and Lakewood, Colorado resident Jamie Ann usually blogs about her adventures exploring the Great Outdoors, using photography, poetry, and prose to relate her experiences. But today, Jamie Ann had a different message:
I did not start this blog to use it for any type of a social or political platform. I have never been what I would call a politically motivated person. My interests and loves in life have always been nature and environment based. Regretfully, under the Bush administration, this country has only degraded. Although the endangered environment is now a global issue, this country has long been in the forefront of its demise. It is past time that we stop. With the presidential election on the horizon, I ask that you please consider the candidacy of New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson. Please click the link below to visit his campaign site.
<div align="center">Bill Richardson</div>
Click here for more information on Governor Richardson's policy platform on environmental issues.
A blogger at The Clarion Issue Blog agreed that Governor Richardson is the best candidate for stopping global warming, protecting the environment, and revolutionizing how we create and utilize energy:
While the whole world now seems to have accepted the idea of going green, Bill Richardson has been fighting on the frontlines of protecting our resources for years. In 1998 Richardson became Secretary of the Energy Department. In this role he was known as a tireless advocate of renewable resources as he strove to break our dependence on foreign oil. He also was instrumental in pressing for cleaner burning gasoline.
In the rest of this blog post, the author, "R," argues that out of all the candidates, Governor Richardson would be the best presidential candidate for the Democratic Party:
There is a Democratic candidate that has every trait necessary to win the White House. The democrats have a candidate with a wealth of experience both at the national and international levels. He is a candidate that has dealt with rouge leaders and regimes. He has been dispatched to secure the release of hostages and on international fact-finding missions. Additionally, he has successfully managed the budget of a large state while striving for equal rights for all citizens regardless of race, sex, or orientation.
The best candidate, the only candidate for the Democratic Party is Bill Richardson...
While only 35 years old he successfully ran for the US Congress. This began a fourteen-year congressional career that saw Richardson hold a number of important and influential posts. Richardson was on the Interior Committee, the House Select Committee on Intelligence. Additionally, Richardson was eventually picked as Chief Deputy Whip.
Bill Richardson is also an accomplished and skilled diplomat. As both a member of Congress and then later as the United States Ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson has worked with world leaders and governments to build consensus towards common objectives. Richardson has productively and successfully engaged rouge leaders, pulling them into compliance with the world...
In recent years Bill Richardson has been the very successful Governor of New Mexico. During Richardson's tenure, the New Mexico economy has improved so significantly that the turnaround is know as the "New Mexico Turnaround." His common sense and fiscally responsible policies deserve much of the credit.
Bill Richardson is the only Democrat in the field with the combination of skills, abilities and experiences to make a successful run at the White House. Now if only the Democrats knew it.
Indeed, if only more people knew it. Do your part to support Governor Richardson and spread the word about his candidacy. Join the campaign as a supporter, sign up to volunteer, write an endorsement, join a grassroots group of supporters and volunteers in your area, reach out to others to encourage them to join the campaign, write a letter to your newspaper about an issue that matters to you, make a contribution or a recurring contribution, attend a campaign event in your area... There are so many ways you can get involved! Get involved today.
Governor Richardson clearly stands out in the Democratic field on many issues, and perhaps most notably, with his plan for the future of Iraq. Blogger jobsanger posted about the governor's distinctive position on this issue:
There are four major candidates in the Democratic Party vying for that party's nomination to run for president, but only one of those candidates has a coherent position on the Iraq war. This candidate was against the war from the beginning, and he wants to pull all of our troops out of Iraq. This candidate is Gov. Bill Richardson. Here is his position on Iraq in his own words:
Some say that all of the Democratic Presidential candidates have basically the same position on Iraq. I disagree.
I'd pull all of our troops out in 6-8 months. The other major candidates would leave some troops behind indefinitely. That's a major difference -- any way you look at it.
On Sunday, at the ABC debate in Iowa, I asked the other candidates point blank: how many troops would you leave behind? 25,000? 50,000? 75,000? For how long? I didn't get an answer.
The big campaigns, with their huge media budgets, think they can drown out our differences and control the conversation on Iraq.
The Iraqis must rebuild their own country, and they won't make the tough political compromises until they know we're serious about turning the country over to them. It is becoming increasingly clear you can't end the war AND leave troops behind. Pulling our troops out won't cause a civil war; our troops are targets in a civil war right now. We must redeploy them out of Iraq and then secure the region...
Saying that all Democrats have the same position because "any" Democrat would end the war eventually is a cop out. Saying there is no military solution in Iraq and then advocating leaving US troops behind to find the military solution you just said doesn't exist is nuts.
There are options. There are solutions. We don't have to choose between change and experience. We don't have to leave troops behind. There is another way.
To learn more about how Governor Richardson's plan for Iraq is different from other candidates' proposals,
click here, and for more details on Governor Richardson's plan for Iraq,
click here.
Late last week, Governor Richardson stood up to the Bush Administration's callous, misguided efforts to block the state of New Mexico's recently passed legislation which would provide critically ill patients access to medical marijuana. Scott Morgan blogged about Governor Richardson's efforts to offer relief to eligible patients in New Mexico:
This exchange between Bill Richardson and Stuart Cooper of Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana shows the political wisdom of supporting compassionate policies. Richardson discusses his efforts to protect patients in New Mexico, and describes the broader drug war as a failure, then appeals to Cooper for support:
Richardson: By the way, I hope you can get me some votes. I haven't won too many votes with that one. You should see the letter I got from the Sheriff's Association, but sometimes you gotta do the right thing. It's the right thing.
Cooper: Sir, 80% of New Hampshire voters agree with you.
Richardson: Do they?
Cooper: Yes sir.
Richardson: Will you tell them?
Already on the presidential campaign trail, Richardson was nonetheless surprised to learn that his support for medical marijuana would resonate with a huge majority of voters. That was July 16. By August 17, Richardson had sent a letter to President Bush demanding that ONDCP stop threatening his state's new medical marijuana program. He also ordered the NM Dept. of Health to move forward despite federal intimidation... The point here isn't that Richardson is trying to win the favor of voters. He already supported medical marijuana, but stepped up his efforts after learning that it was safe and, in fact, smart to do so.
For more on Governor Richardson's recent efforts to fight for more compassionate, more intelligent federal drug control policies and priorities, click here.
Finally today, Teddy Davis at ABC News wrote a major story on how Governor Richardson is "quickly emerging in the race for the White House" as the most liberal, and also, most fiscally responsible Democratic candidate for president:
"There are two ways to be a centrist. One way is to cut the baby in half on every issue. The other is to be quite liberal on some issues and quite conservative on others," said Garry South, a California-based Democratic strategist who sees Richardson falling into the second category. "He's being what you would expect a Western governor of a Rocky Mountain state would be. I don't think it's political posturing."
On Iraq, Richardson has stood apart from his top rivals in calling for a swift and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops. "We have different positions here," Richardson said Sunday at a Democratic debate moderated by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. "I believe that if you leave any residual forces, then none of the peace that we are trying to bring can happen."
Asked to evaluate the significance of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., agreeing with Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on the need for an ongoing U.S. troop presence in Iraq, Richardson told ABCNEWS.com, "The significance is that they all disagree with me. I've been trying to differentiate myself and I finally succeeded, and I believe the public is with me and sound strategy is with me."
Withdraw Troops From Iraq
Going forward, Richardson plans to use the Clinton and Obama statements from the debate to paint the Top 2 Democrats as standing against "real change" in Iraq. "I'm going to point out our differences, yeah," said Richardson. "I think to really end this war, you've got to adopt my plan of removing all U.S. troops." ...
"You can't have stability" with "any American troops there," Richardson said at the debate. Rather than maintaining a U.S. troop presence in Iraq, Richardson is hoping to persuade the United Nations to send an all-Muslim peacekeeping force to the war-torn country. He also hopes that Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Iran and Syria can be brought into the reconciliation process once U.S. troops leave Iraq. The only U.S. troops he would leave in Iraq would protect the U.S. Embassy. "What is needed here," Richardson said at the debate, "is stability, and I think that all of these countries can be invested in a plan for stability." ...
Scrap 'No Child Left Behind'
Richardson also stands to the left of top Democrats on education. While his rivals would like to see minor adjustments and more funding to "No Child Left Behind," Richardson would junk the education measure signed into law by President Bush in 2001. "I also have a one-point plan, like I do on Iraq, on 'No Child Left Behind,'" said Richardson at Sunday's debate. "Scrap it. It's a mess. It's a disaster." ... While Obama has expressed interest in using the collective bargaining process to develop "merit pay" structures for teachers, Richardson has flatly rejected merit pay and promised to lift teachers' salaries across the board from the current national average of $29,564. "You asked the question, 'Are we for merit pay for teachers?'" Richardson said at Sunday's debate. "No, I'm not for it. But what we need to do is pay our teachers better. They are disrespected. I have proposed a minimum wage for our teachers: $40,000 per year."
Click here to learn more about Governor Richardson's policy platforms on these issues and more.
That's all for today. Be sure you check out these blogs and others, and do your part to spread the message of Richardson for President. Set the record straight when others out in the blogosphere get the facts wrong. Write your own diaries. Pass these links and others like them along to your friends and family. This is your opportunity to participate in politics and help the campaign!
Until next time,
Alison