Tancredo Joins GOP Presidential Field
Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) formally announced he is running for president, sharply criticizing the leading Republican candidates for their positions on immigration.
"The political elite in Washington have chosen to ignore this phenomenon," said Tancredo, a leading congressional voice against illegal immigration. "You look and you see no one is going to make this the primary issue of their campaign."
  Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) announced his candidacy on a radio talk show. (By Kevin Sanders -- Associated Press) |
Announcing on conservative talk radio on a day when other GOP candidates said they had raised tens of millions for the campaigns, Tancredo appeared unfazed.
"We have something they don't have -- a group of people out there who are there because of an issue," Tancredo said. His campaign announced that it had raised about $1.3 million in the first three months of the year.
Richardson to Return Donations
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful, announced that he will return up to $35,000 in contributions to his 2002 and 2006 gubernatorial campaigns after the Associated Press disclosed that the funds came from key figures in a public corruption scandal in the state.
"We're totaling it up, and any money from any of these individuals, the governor will donate to charities," Amanda Cooper, Richardson's deputy campaign manager, told the AP.
Four people, including the former New Mexico Senate president, were charged last week with trying to bilk the government out of $4.2 million in a courthouse construction project.
One of the four, engineering subcontractor Raul Parra, donated $5,500 to Richardson in 2002 and 2006, and a company in which Parra is a partner contributed $15,000, the AP reported. Prosecutors indicted Parra on charges of conspiracy, money laundering and mail fraud.
Richardson's campaign also took in $9,500 from Marc Schiff, the project's architect, and $5,000 from the company of subcontractor Manuel Guara, the AP reported. Both men have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and mail fraud.
In unrelated Richardson news, the governor signed a law yesterday permitting doctors to prescribe marijuana to help gravely ill patients alleviate pain and nausea.
House Democrat to Resign
Rep. Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.) will submit his resignation May 9 and officially leave office July 1, setting up September primaries and an early October election to replace him.
After 14 years in Congress, Meehan is set to become chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
