Full disclosure: I blog at America for Richardson, support Bill Richardson for President and was helping staff his booth at Yearly Kos.
Let me start with the obvious: Bill Richardson is the only one of the Democratic Presidential candidates who has attended both editions of Yearly Kos. He's been with us longer than some others.
This year, Governor Richardson arrived over an hour ahead of the Candidates' Forum, and spent his time walking around shaking hands and talking with us. Did anyone see any other Presidential candidates show up early just to mingle?
Governor Richardson has taken the time and put in the effort to gain netroots support, so I ask our community to keep an open mind and join the conversation with Bill Richardson. Below are some details of the Governor's efforts to reach out to our community, in addition to his Yearly Kos appearances.
In the past 1 1/2 years that I've been involved with Bill Richardson and his staff, I've seen the Governor make efforts to reach out to bloggers and the netroots everywhere he's gone. In fact, Governor Richardson has met with bloggers in my state, Washington, twice in the past year.
I know Governor Richardson also met with Laurin Manning (now working for Senator Obama) and her fellow bloggers in South Carolina last year, and has done the same in several other states (if not everywhere he goes). Governor Richardson was meeting with bloggers, as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, well before he announced his run for President.
The format of these meetings is always the same. Governor Richardson opens by making a few comments about being there to listen to bloggers, about the important role the netroots play in the political process, and the importance of having a two way conversation between bloggers and elected officials and candidates. Then the Governor opens it up to questions and spends most of the meeting fielding questions on all topics. This article from the Albuquerque Journal in February shows the importance Governor Richardson has placed on the netroots:
But scoring the so-called "netroots" support is political gravy for Richardson, who for months has gone out of his way to court bloggers and plug their importance in politics.
Richardson presidential campaign deputy manager Amanda Cooper said Friday that a meet-up in Boston could bring in more than 100 people, while another in Minnesota is expected to draw 35 people.
She said Richardson will be linking with the meet-ups via conference call and plans to field questions.
"The governor is very proud and pleased at this grass-roots, net-roots level of support," campaign spokesman Pahl Shipley said. Richardson has "made an effort to reach out to bloggers and include them in the process. As the governor said, you ignore (the movement) at your own peril." [emphasis mine]
The day he announced his campaign for President, Governor Richardson held a special conference call with the Richardson netroots, those of us who have been with him from the beginning. You could hear the emotion in his voice as he thanked us for our efforts on his behalf. Access to the Governor or his staff has never been a problem for the netroots. It's never been a one-way street with the campaign, nor have we ever been viewed as an ATM.
So this past weekend at Yearly Kos, it was great to see many of you stop by our booth and voice your support for Governor Richardson. Thanks also to those of you who took the time to stop by Governor Richardson's breakout session to ask him a question. If there's one thing the Governor loves about campaigning, it's having conversations with people like you and me.
Most importantly, if you have a question that you want Governor Richardson to answer, you're invited to Ask Bill. No stuffy anchors, no middlemen, just you asking Governor Richardson your questions. You can write your question in text, submit a question by video, and you can do it in French, English or Spanish (Governor Richardson speaks all three languages), and Governor Richardson will answer as many questions as he can. There isn't anything much more democratic than an elected official using the tubes to take questions from the average person.
When it comes down to it, the netroots may not agree with Bill Richardson 100 percent, but then again who agrees with anyone 100 percent of the time? Bill Richardson is the only candidate who is referring to his campaign stops as "job interviews" and that's because he understands clearly that the American people are the boss.
So again I ask you to keep an open mind about Bill Richardson for President, because as George W. Bush has shown us, when applying for a job, experience counts.
And for those of you who weren't able to join us at Governor Richardson's breakout session at Yearly Kos, here is the video.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four