ONE THAT GOT AWAY: Richardson last week officially announced his presidential bid in Los Angeles, but he didn’t score the endorsement of the mega-city’s influential Hispanic mayor: Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday endorsed Hillary Clinton. A story in The New York Times said several Democratic candidates pursued Villaraigosa’s endorsement as “a huge political prize,” and the Clinton camp crowed about the catch in a campaign memo Wednesday. The Richardson camp expressed confidence it would win the California primary on Feb. 5, 2008, without Villaraigosa’s backing, according to the Times story.
    “Governor Richardson is more interested in getting the support of Latino voters rather than big-name Latino leaders,” the paper quoted spokesman Pahl Shipley as saying. “He has never felt that high-profile endorsements help much in a campaign.”

ONE LESS DEBATE:
Richardson and fellow Democratic White House hopeful Chris Dodd on Wednesday said they will not be attending a September debate co-sponsored by the Fox News Channel, according to the Associated Press.
    The decision could spell doom for the Sept. 23 event in Detroit: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards already have said no thanks to the event.
    The next Democratic presidential debate is set to take place Sunday night in New Hampshire. (See the Journal for full coverage of that event, both online at ABQjournal.com on Sunday night and in print editions Monday morning).

SUNSHINE STATE VISIT: Richardson was campaigning and fundraising in Florida on Tuesday, and the Miami Herald took a look at his presidential bid.
    The Herald story said Richardson counts among his Florida supporters former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre but quoted Ferre as saying, “Hispanics, like all people, like to be with a winner, and so far (Richardson) hasn’t risen above the fray.”
    Florida recently moved up its primary date to Jan. 29, making that already important state even more vital to presidential hopefuls.

    NEWSWEEK PLUG: The national news magazine in its June 4 edition gives Richardson an informal thumbs-up for officially jumping into the presidential race.

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