With Energy To Spare

-- Peter G. Bourne, former special assistant to President Jimmy Carter.

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I ran against Bill Richardson in my first political race, and I learned a lot from him during that campaign. Because of his very close loss to Manuel Lujan Jr. for Congress in 1980, everyone knew that he was the one to beat in 1982. He had a reputation for being a relentless campaigner and if anybody did a poll -- I certainly didn't have the money to do one -- it would have shown him way ahead.

It was a new congressional district, and we all thought that whoever won our primary was going to be the next congressman. It became a very hard-fought four-way primary. We contested every issue and the experience of each candidate. There were accusations and charges flying, and everyone was trying to make hay out of it.

Nearly 25 years later, we still always kid each other about having been political opponents in the past. He's a man who wins over his adversaries. Bill understands that in politics it's never to your benefit to allow your political opponents to become enemies.

-- Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).

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D uring Bill's 1982 campaign, I flew him all over New Mexico in a little one-engine Cessna 182. We'd go into very small airports or not even airports at all. Once, on an Apache reservation, our battery died and one of the Apaches came out with a pickup truck and gave the plane a jump. We'd go from conservative ranchers to Hispanic neighborhoods to Native American tribes and everyone embraced him. He used to say: My last name is Richardson, so the Anglo population thinks I'm Anglo, I can speak Spanish -- and he'd say something in Spanish -- so the Hispanic population likes me. And I look like a Native American, so all the Native Americans vote for me. And we were very frugal in those days. He had a big debt. I'm not sure of the total, but he had at least $20,000 interest on the debt. So it was a lot of travel in our little plane. I was a crew member in Vietnam, and I flew as long a day with him as we ever had in Vietnam. He was almost like a robot, he never quit.

-- Walter "Butch" Maki, Richardson staffer from 1982-92.

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I worked for Bill Richardson on the Hill and at the Energy Department and am married to one of his college friends, so I know something about his demanding and inexhaustible style. During Bill's first campaign for Congress in 1980, my husband Steve's job one day was to hold the "clicker" to keep track of the record-breaking number of hands the candidate shook at the New Mexico State Fair. Bill did so with such vigor that en route to a campaign event that night after the marathon effort, they had to stop at a drugstore to get a sling for his arm. Bill works harder than anyone else and it's a challenge to keep up.