Keeping tabs on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as he seeks the Democratic nomination for president…

    EVERYBODY BLOGS: Gary Rith, a New Hampshire potter who makes ceramic pigs, muses on his blog about: If he were elected president, whom would he choose as his vice president? Since you’re reading about it here, his choice must be Richardson. “Why isn’t this guy getting more attention? Former congressman, ambassador and Cabinet member and general diplomat about town and current New Mexico governor. This guy is correct on most of the issues, from a progressive viewpoint, smart as heck, experienced beyond any other candidate, honest, and this matters to some people, Hispanic. Since I would be an incompetent president, this guy could run the show and I could learn golf.”

    HUFFY POST: Chris Weigant, writing on the Huffington Post, calls his post “Democratic Candidates the Media Aren’t Telling You About” and includes Richardson in the pack of the under-reported, even though it seems to us on this side of the printing press that he’s gotten plenty of ink. Weigant’s point of view: “So why isn’t he getting more attention? In a field of candidates crowded with (as the mainstream media labels them) “rock stars,” Richardson mostly has been sidelined. The media seem content to focus on the woman candidate and the black candidate, so being the Hispanic candidate hasn’t been enough to break out into the public’s attention. This is a shame, because Richardson would probably be a great president if elected.”

    ON THE JOB: Richardson’s campaign has hired two aides to head up his South Carolina operation. They are Trav Robertson, a veteran of campaigns for Rep. John Spratt, and James Dukes, a former state party executive director who also ran Sen. John Kerry’s primary campaign in South Carolina in 2004. Lachlan McIntosh, also a former party chief, already is in South Carolina for Richardson.

    WHO’S IN THIRD?: Second? Third? Fourth? Who’s counting? A Richardson blogger reported the results of a St. Paul, Minn., straw poll as having Richardson in second place. Richardson told a group at Dartmouth College earlier this week the poll had him in third. “I called my staff and said, ‘How come I’m in third? I haven’t been there,” he joked. “And they said, ‘That’s why you’re third.’ ’’ In reality, he placed fourth with 8.9 percent or 115 votes. Hillary Clinton edged out Barack Obama by one vote and was tied for first with 25 percent. John Edwards got 176 votes and was in third.

    BUY LOW, SELL HIGH: In the virtual stock market (like fantasy football except with play money and celebrities and politics on the brain), Richardson is a bargain. Massachusetts blogger David Eisenthal keeps track of such things and says Richardson is currently trading at $1.40 a share, making him practically a penny stock when compared to Obama at $23.50 a share and John Edwards at $28 a share. Can somebody explain why Halle Berry’s price has dropped from $110.41 a share to $104.11 a share?

    LATINO LOOK: A Congressional Quarterly report carried in The New York Times looks at how Richardson, the only Hispanic in the race, is doing among Hispanic voters. The answer: not well. A poll of 1,000 Hispanics registered to vote released Monday found only 37 percent were aware there was a Hispanic candidate and only 25 percent could identify the candidate as Richardson. Among those voters, only 16 percent said they favored Richardson. He did worse among all those polled, getting only 9 percent. Clinton was the runaway winner with 60 percent.

By Leslie Linthicum, Journal staff writer

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