Iowa Caucus Tomorrow - Make Phone Calls from MD to Support Governor Richardson

Hi everyone! Here we are! The Iowa Caucuses are tomorrow. This is the election that will set the tone for the rest of the Presidentioal race and could even cause some to drop out, based on their performance. A number of Marylanders are currently in Iowa doing all they can to support the Governor. There's a way you can help too. The campaign has a tool set up on its website that will allow you to make phone calls to Iowa from your home in Maryland. Click here to get started calling Iowa voters.

Also, check out the below news coverage of the Governor's campaign efforts in Iowa this past weekend. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!

CNN Political Ticker

January 1, 2008
Richardson: 'I’m gonna shock the world’
Posted: 03:43 PM ET

(CNN) — Bill Richardson told CNN Tuesday that his Democratic presidential opponents had more “charisma,” but that once voters start to weigh in “I’m gonna shock the world.”

“People who are voting, they want someone to bring them together they’re inspired by. Somebody that can resolve problems,” said Richardson. “And I’m gonna do well, you watch. I’m gonna shock the world as we move into these early primaries.”

The New Mexico governor is running well behind Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in most early-voting states, registering the single digits in most surveys.

“I think this race is about who can bring this country together, who has the most experience,” Richardson told CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux. He said he’d asked voters to “not look at the candidates on not who has the most money, or the most charisma, or who was the best political pedigree, but who can change this country and give it hope. You need experience, you need a record and that is why I'm running.”

Richardson also cited his foreign policy experience, which has been a cornerstone of his presidential run. “I think I can negotiate a resolution to the Iraqi issue with diplomacy, not with force. And that’s what I think I bring to the table.”

Asked by Malveaux what his New Year’s resolution was, Richardson said it was the same as every year: “Lose weight,” adding, “I lose it a little at the start of the year, but then at the end of the year it comes back. But you know, in a campaign you just can’t lose weight. Because you’re eating, you’re tense, people give you things to eat — you can’t turn them down or you lose votes.”
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Richardson Rallies the Troops in Des Moines

December 30, 2007, 7:19 PM
Posted by Brian Montopoli 2

DES MOINES, IOWA - “The election of the next President of the United States should not be by the national media, it should be by Iowa,” an energetic Bill Richardson told a boisterous crowd of about 200 people in downtown Des Moines this afternoon.* He vowed to “shock the world” by winning the caucus and spoke of a recent poll that put him “within striking distance of the top three.”

In a 20 minute speech, Richardson ticked off his presidential plans, among them getting U.S. troops out of Iraq within a year, universal health care, more cancer research, eliminating No Child Left Behind, making mental health a priority, and “stopping the Bush administration from building condominiums on forests.”

In a shot at Dick Cheney, Richardson promised that “my vice president will be a member of the executive branch.” He engaged in a call and response with the crowd at both the beginning and end of the speech, opening by asking, “Are we ready to take our country back?” The crowd responded: “Woo!”

“Are we going to elect a Democratic president?,” Richardson then asked. “Yeeees!,” the audience yelled back. “What’s that president’s name?,” Richardson wondered. “Bill!,” they said.

Richardson entered the room to U2’s "Where the Streets Have No Name." He apologized to the crowd for the absence of Martin Sheen, the actor who played the president on “The West Wing,” who has endorsed Richardson. “I was ordered by my doctor not to travel to Iowa because I have a severe, contagious cold that would not allow me to fly,” Sheen said in a letter of support for Richardson, which was read to the crowd before the New Mexico governor spoke.

Before the speech began, Jim Uhl, a welder from Des Moines, explained why he supported Richardson.

“He’s got more experience with foreign policy, and I like what he’s done with veterans programs in New Mexico,” said Uhl. “His health care policies are a big thing too. My wife has medical problems and we have a hard time paying the premiums. We may need to get a divorce just so she can get some kind of health care.”

When Richardson was working the crowd before the speech, he and Uhl exchanged a high five.

*NOTE: After this post was published, the Richardson campaign wrote saying they estimated 500 people at the event.