Governors hanker for more action.
Gov. Bill Richardson has made no secret about his plans to run for re-election in 2006 but has been a tad more coy about his not-so-secret White House ambitions for 2008.
The governor nonetheless took a subtle step towards bolstering his own would-be candidacy on Oct. 11 when, alongside a Utah delegation led by Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman, he announced a bipartisan push for an early presidential primary in key Western states.
"For too long the Western states have been a flyover region for presidential politics," Richardson said. "[Thanks to] this bipartisan effort…I believe this very good idea will become a reality."
Richardson insists his leadership is "secondary" to Huntsman's even though the New Mexico governor has long been the most vocal instigator for exploring an early Western primary. Richardson said the main purpose of an early primary would be to push issues indigenous to the West into the national spotlight. But when the issue of how Western candidates would benefit from such a primary came up, Richardson politely deferred to Huntsman and excused himself from the press conference to deal with the NM State Legislature special session.
"We're tired of being irrelevant in presidential politics," Huntsman said.
Traditionally, Iowa (with the first presidential caucus) and New Hampshire (with the first primary) are considered make-or-break states for presidential hopefuls. Western states don't join the fray until candidates are all but a foregone conclusion.
Following a push from Richardson, New Mexico had a February Democratic caucus for the first time in 2004 and was visited 50 times by candidates prior to it, versus 10 candidate visits during the 2000 election cycle in which a June primary was held.
New Mexico, Utah and Arizona are slated for caucuses on Feb. 5, 2008; the governors hope Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho will join the alliance.
As for Richardson-who has trailed far behind potential candidates like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and John Edwards in preliminary polls-he has a key ally for making the Western primary a reality in political strategist Michael Stratton. Stratton served as an advance man for Richardson when the governor visited New Hampshire in June and is a leader of the Democratic National Presidential Nomination and Scheduling Commission.
Stratton says that there is a push to include at least one Western state in the primary season's "first window" in January alongside Iowa and New Hampshire. Stratton acknowledges that a Western primary in early February would bolster Richardson's candidacy, but insists the true motivation would be to make Western states a legitimate player in the run for the Oval Office.
"Will this benefit Gov. Richardson? Sure," Stratton says. "It certainly wouldn't be a detriment. But this is bigger than that. The West has been secondary in presidential politics for a long time. This is a chance for the Western states to really join the national dialogue."
