Richardson Receives Key Endorsements in Utah

I’ve recently mentioned the improvements in the polls, fund raising, and favorable media coverage in New Hampshire and South Carolina as reasons that Bill Richardson may be on the verge of replacing John Edwards as the third place contender for the Democratic nomination. He’s also picked up another valuable endorsement in one of the early primary states. The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson swooped into Utah on Friday to scoop up cash and endorsements from Mayors Rocky Anderson and Peter Corroon…

Utah has joined with New Mexico and Arizona to hold the Western States Primary on Feb. 5.

Earlier Friday, Anderson and Corroon, mayors of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, held a news conference to endorse Richardson.

Richardson’s experience as a congressman, United Nations ambassador and Energy secretary under President Clinton gives him the experience needed to deal with the nation’s problems, Corroon said. “These are serious times that need serious leadership.”

“He is a man who believes in diplomacy,” Anderson said. “We wouldn’t be in the midst of this debacle in Iraq if we had President Bill Richardson.”

Former Utah Rep. Bill Orton agreed that Richardson’s knack for diplomacy, which included negotiating hostage releases in North Korea, Sudan and Iraq, is needed. “Our country is in desperate need of someone to take us forward and improve our status worldwide.”

Anderson is known as a firery liberal who has backed the impeachment of George Bush.

While Clinton and Obama are holding steady, Edwards has been collapsing, and the other second tier candidates are going nowhere, Richardson is currently showing the most momentum. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to be competitive with Clinton and Obama.

2 Comments

  1. 1
    Mary says:

    Richardson, along with Harry Reid and a few governors and congressional members from the west were behind the forcing of the Nevada Democratic party to contract the now cancelled debate to Fox news as part of the rarely discussed Western Majority Project. Richardson is the lousy corporate controlled governor of a state with a lousy economy, he has a reputation of being extremely grabby with female staffers and is in the pocked of the US Chamber of Commerce and the open borders lobby. He will never be elected to higher office.. even if he won the primary, because there is too much out there that would crash and burn his candidacy.

  2. 2
    Ron Chusid says:

    Mary,

    Richardson is one of the candidates I’m watching but haven’t decided upon. He took over a state with a lousy economy, so I don’t think he can be blamed there.

    I am concerned about the accusations that he is grabby with female staffers but from what I can find this charge is far from certain. It sounds like he is more physicial than average with everyone around him, and I wonder if the charges of inappropriate touching of female staffers is an exaggeration of this from political enemies. The more prominent he is in the race, the more we are likley to find out about this to determine if the charge is valid.

    As for his views on business, there is a distinction between being pro-business growth and being in the pocket of corporations. Again, this is an issue which will require a closer look as the campaign goes on.

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