Richardson won't settle for VP in caucus campaign

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By Ruben Navarrette | Tuesday, December 4, 2007 12:44 AM CST | () comments

SAN DIEGO — The conventional thinking is that Bill Richardson is running a great campaign — for vice president.

So during a quick phone interview while he was on the campaign trail in Iowa, I asked the New Mexico governor if he was really auditioning for the No. 2 spot.

“That’s baloney,” Richardson said. “You know, I’m really not interested. I’ll come back to be governor of New Mexico, a job that I love. I can do my foreign policy ventures.”

The candidate credits a recent bump in the polls to “intensive personal campaigning” and his debate performances where, on immigration and foreign policy, he was — as he puts it — “strong and firm and didn’t deviate.”

According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll, Richardson gets points on immigration. Twenty-five percent of Americans trust him on that issue — a better showing than his opponents.

Why is that?

“It’s because I’m honest,” he said. “And when I’m asked to explain my position in Iowa and New Hampshire, generally audiences that may be a bit hostile, I say to them that I’m for more security at the border, but I’m not for the wall. I say that it makes sense to have a legalization plan. What are the options? Deportation, or doing nothing?”

Richardson also thinks that Clinton, Obama and Edwards are bungling the immigration issue because they’re “trying to duck it with rhetoric” when this is an issue that can’t be finessed.

“There’s an opportunity because Republicans are being totally reprehensible about it and nativist,” he said.

Good for him. Edgy comments bring to mind the personal balancing act that one has to strike when he’s the first credible Hispanic candidate for president. How do you appeal to the mainstream but stay true to your ancestry?

The candidate says that is one reason he began “Mi Familia con Bill Richardson,” an outreach effort aimed at Hispanic voters — a group that will leave a huge footprint on Feb. 5 when votes are cast in heavily Hispanic states such as California, Colorado, Arizona and Richardson’s home base of New Mexico.

“My strategy is simple,” Richardson said. “It’s to end up in the top three in Iowa, top three in New Hampshire, top three in Nevada. If I do that, then I’m on my way.”

Yes, but to where — and to which office?

Contact Ruben Navarrette at ruben.navarrette@uniontrib.com.