Bill Richardson didn’t so much walk into the county Democratic convention here as he lumbered. Shoulders hunched forward, he was a rumpled figure in jeans, a blue blazer, white shirt, red tie askew and black loafers.
He knew everyone, or at least made them think he did, wrapping his large arms around the men’s shoulders, kissing the women, making them all feel they were the only ones in the crowded room. He delivered a brief speech with almost surgical precision, reaching out to important Democratic constituencies–teachers, environmentalists, seniors, minorities and gays.
For the former congressman, United Nations ambassador and energy secretary, the meeting was another ticket punch as he pursues his party’s nomination for governor of New Mexico, a race in which he is heavily favored.
His skills recall those of the man whose name never crossed his lips in two days of campaigning: former President Bill Clinton. Richardson is one of five former top administration officials running for governor this year. Another is running for the Senate, and a handful, including Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, are running for seats in the U.S. House. Among them, only Emanuel has chosen to embrace his association with the former president.
For Democrats, Clinton remains a problematic figure. His star power, complete with a peerless ability to raise money and excite the party base, is unquestioned. But so is his legacy of scandal, including controversial pardons he issued in the final hours of his presidency.
Avoiding personal references
Richardson said he is not running away from Clinton, but in his talks with voters, he sticks to the record of his service in the “Clinton administration,” avoiding personal references to the former president.
“I think Clinton is not a liability, nor is he an asset,” Richardson said in an interview. “My attitude is not running away from my service. I’m not denying it.”
Asked whether Clinton would campaign for him if he wins the party nomination (national party leaders rarely take sides in primaries), Richardson said: “We haven’t decided.” He paused, then added with a shrug: “We probably will.”
Clinton easily carried New Mexico in 1992 and 1996, but it is clear that here and elsewhere, many Democrats are chary of aligning their hopes with the former president.
The gubernatorial hopefuls are Richardson in New Mexico, former Atty. Gen. Janet Reno in Florida, former Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo in New York, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich in Massachusetts and former counselor Bill Curry in Connecticut. Former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles is running for the Senate in North Carolina.
“They have the history of Al Gore running away from Clinton, even the record on the good stuff,” said Democratic consultant Frank Greer, “and then with the pardons and everything, it was not the most graceful exit.”
And, Greer said, many of the unusually large number of former administration officials seeking high office this year are known for things other than their ties to Clinton. Richardson had been a high-profile congressman, Reich a well-known author and lecturer, and Reno an attorney general who generated controversy in ways that sometimes saw her isolated from the president.
Reno “talks about her record in the Clinton administration, working to reduce crime, and community policing, but she really doesn’t talk about Clinton beyond the record,” said Greer, a Reno adviser. “There are people who don’t have an identity on their own, like Erskine Bowles, and he doesn’t talk about Clinton at all. Erskine Bowles literally does not mention the work in the Clinton administration in any of his campaign materials.”
Standing hasn’t changed
Though some are clearly keeping Clinton at a distance, the former president’s standing among Americans is roughly the same as it was when he left office, with people able to separate his accomplishments from his personal shortcomings.
“I’ve seen these stories about the Clinton curse,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the non-partisan Pew Research Center. “And I had this notion that 9/11 would really change perceptions of the Clinton legacy, that [Osama] bin Laden would diminish him in ways that Ken Starr did not. I’ve added some questions to our polls and found absolutely no difference.
“People still have a dim personal view of him and largely think that he was a pretty good president,” he added.
Rather, he said, it is former Vice President Gore who seems to have been diminished by the war against terrorism, and there are no signs yet that Gore will be asked to campaign any more than Clinton. “I think Gore is the one left out on the beach,” Kohut said.
Former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart dismissed a Clinton taint as so much “inside-the-Beltway chatter,” noting that many who served in the Nixon administration went on to hold prominent positions. And most Democrats agree that Clinton remains perhaps his party’s best draw as a fundraiser.
Richardson spent about a year out of public life, working for Kissinger McLarty Associates in Washington as a consultant, speaking around the nation and burnishing his international credentials in numerous post-Sept. 11 television appearances.
“Even though I was very comfortable in the private sector, when I came back here the political juices started to flow again,” he said. “When I returned to New Mexico and came here on the Plaza [center of old Santa Fe] and people stopped to shake hands and wanted their picture taken with me, I found that I missed political campaigning, the handshaking. I liked it and I wanted to get back.”
With current Republican Gov. Gary Johnson facing a term limit, Richardson also saw the rare opportunity to run for an open seat. “I felt like being a governor would permit me to have an agenda where I was the agenda . . . and that if I didn’t make this race now, with an open seat, my political career would be over, and I wasn’t ready for it to end.
“Obviously, as an Hispanic, to be in the arena and if I didn’t run, then the idea of an Hispanic governor might not happen for some time,” Richardson said.
As he campaigns aggressively across the state, he says voters don’t ask him about Clinton, or even about the current war on terrorism. “They want the focus to be on jobs and health care and education,” he said.
Indeed, in an appearance Tuesday before several dozen high school students from Desert Academy, Clinton’s name didn’t come up in a half-hour of questioning. In his opening remarks, Richardson did mention the “Clinton administration” three times, but he did not talk about the former president.
The students were far more concerned with Richardson’s views on decriminalizing marijuana (he’s opposed), health care and promoting alternative energy sources, all questions well within Richardson’s rhetorical wheelhouse.
GOP attack expected
During the primaries, it is unlikely that many fellow Democrats would try to tar their opponent with the negatives of the former president. But in the fall elections, Republicans won’t play by such rules.
The Richardson campaign expects the national Republican Party to pump several million dollars into the fall campaign if Richardson is the nominee.
“I don’t think they want an Hispanic governor who is a Democrat, giving Democrats a beachhead in the West,” Richardson said.
That’s why he so decidedly talks about his record and his plans for New Mexico, a state that despite its natural beauty is ranked among the worst on nearly every indicator of economic misery.
Far from a referendum on Clinton, Richardson thinks his race is a referendum “on me. And my service to the country, my tenure as a congressman and my successes and problems.”
– – –
Races involving Clinton alumni
One year removed from President Bush’s inauguration, Clinton administration officials are back in the political spotlight. Four Clinton Cabinet officers and three former White House officials have entered major races to be decided this year, vying for congressional seats and governorships. The contenders include:
GOVERNOR CANDIDATES
NEW YORK
Andrew Cuomo
Former secretary of housing and urban development
KEY OPPONENT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall
KEY OPPONENT IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
Gov. George Pataki
MASSACHUSETTS
Robert Reich
Former secretary of labor
KEY OPPONENT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
Senate President Thomas Birmingham and State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien
KEY OPPONENT IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
Gov. Jane Swift
CONNECTICUT
Bill Curry
Former counselor to the president
KEY OPPONENT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
State Senate Majority Leader George Jepsen
KEY OPPONENT IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
Gov. John Rowland
FLORIDA
Janet Reno
Former U.S. attorney general
KEY OPPONENT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
Tampa lawyer Bill McBride
KEY OPPONENT IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
Gov. Jeb Bush
NEW MEXICO
Bill Richardson
Former secretary of energy
KEY OPPONENT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
Former state Rep. Gary King
KEY OPPONENT IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley
SENATE
NORTH CAROLINA
Erskine Bowles
Former White House chief of staff
KEY OPPONENT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall
KEY OPPONENT IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
Elizabeth Dole
HOUSE
ILLINOIS (District 5)
Rahm Emanuel
Former White House political adviser
KEY OPPONENT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
Former state Rep. Nancy Kaszak
KEY OPPONENT IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
Undetermined
Sources: Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, Quinnipiac University, Maxon-Dixon Polling and Research, Elon University, Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
