Yesterday, without much fanfare, Gov. Richardson stated that he will be supporting Ned Lamont in the Connecticut race. While he called Joe a “good friend,” he also said that Lieberman should “respect the will of the voters and step aside.” There are a couple of implications to this.

At first blush, this seems like the safe move, right? But no. Not quite. The safest move would be to say nothing. Gov. Richardson is not in the Senate, he will probably never be in the Senate, and he is not involved with the DSCC in any official way. His main jobs in 2006 are (1) get re-elected himself, which is essentially done, and (2) help more Democratic governors get elected, as the chair of the DGA. So if he wanted to, he certainly had the option of staying silent.

Notably, Ken Salazar (D-CO), made the opposite decision. Salazar was being responsive to his own fortunes in Colorado. (Wrongly, I think, but whatever.)

Richardson is being responsive to the demands of the national party. Quite simply, defection from Lamont is not something the progressive netroots will forgive. Backing Lieberman in the primary is one thing, but the netroots feel they’ve earned a win and deserve the spoils. Richardson, as a matter of political necessity, is backing Lamont because he is going to need the netroots in a little while.

This is low key. But it’s supposed to be. Just like those meetings with bloggers at Yearly Kos, in Washington, in South Carolina. Richardson is laying the groundwork so that, in about six or nine months when it’s announcement time, there will be a structure there and a relationship. And it seems to be working:

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson scores an A+ on the “guy you’d wanna drink a beer with” Presidential litmus test. . . . I expect he’ll be one of the leading anti-Hillary candidates among the 2008 Democratic Presidential contenders.

That’s from one of the SC bloggers Richardson met with.

There is an excellent article at the Washington Post concerning the new primary schedule, that I am ready to call a “must-read.”

I’ve got so much to say about this article that I can barely see straight. I am going to organize my thoughts into labeled subheadings, just to keep everything straight.

A. Who’s Workin’ For Ya?

The change in the primary schedule has cataclysmic implications for the 2008 race. You would expect the major players to each have people in the commission. Well, in fact…

The piece quotes Mike Stratton, who (aside from being a member of the commission reorganizing this thing) is the head of Stratton & Associates, and a major political consultant in the West. He is from my own home state, Colorado, and can you guess who his biggest political client at the moment is?

That’s right!

B. End Times Near For New Hampshire

The most fascinating thing in this piece is that apparently, the earlier schedule is going to include states going before New Hampshire!

I am going to give you a minute to rest, and breathe, and then re-read what I just wrote: before New Hampshire! Let me take a moment to emphasize something on this point, coming directly from the article itself, which is frankly downplayed:

New Hampshire loyalists regard their first-primary status as something close to a divine franchise.

“Something close?” No, Washington Post. I would state it more like this:First Primary:New Hampshire::The Rocky Mountains:Colorado

There is, right outside the statehouse in Concord, a monument to the primary, with every single winner going all the way back from both parties etched in stone, and they update it very faithfully every year. I have been there, and they are not fooling around with this “first primary” stuff.

Now, you can get around that by having caucuses before the NH primary. Iowa has one, for example. But I’m not sure that’s likely to fly. New Hampshire is technically second, but they deal with that by saying “well, we’re the first primary.” But if they’re fourth or fifth, preceded by a bunch of “causes” in other states, New Hampshirites are going to be… well… pissed!

Does this have implications for the general election? Yes! New Hampshire, with its four electoral votes, was won by Kerry, but very narrowly (and lost by Gore in 2000, mostly because of Ralph Nader). I’m not saying we should keep the primary schedule the same just for New Hampshire, I’m saying we should get someone to break it to the state delicately.

But now we get to the important part:

C. What Does This Mean For the West, and Gov. Richardson?

And, of course, there is the now-conventional wisdom rounding out the piece:

Adding a Western state with a significant Hispanic population and a Southern state with a strong black voting presence would satisfy both criteria [geographic and racial diversity], and may be the compromise solution forwarded by the commission.

Here is the situation, then.On February 5th, 2008, Utah and New Mexico will attempt to hold their primary, along with Arizona. This is the initiative of Govs. Richardson and Huntsman. Other states in the mountain West are “actively discussing” joining that coalition; Nevada only does theirs about a week and a half later, for example, so it would make sense to move up.

But that isn’t what’s being discussed in the WaPo article. What’s being discussed is a Western state having a primary even earlier, in January. If both things come true (and they may not), it is a true boon to the entire West and to Gov. Richardson certainly.

On the “Colorado vs. Nevada” question: I still don’t see it happening in Nevada. Las Vegas and Reno aren’t exactly my idea of “retail politics!” The advantage Nevada does have is that it is a traditional caucus state, which would fit with this “don’t piss off New Hampshire” theme. Then again, Colorado could always just switch to a caucus too–small price to pay!

I’ve got a lot more information on the Western Primary in the last week or so that I want to digest; I’m going to set forward an argument in more depth about why it’s very important to have, but it seems that there is going to be at least one Western state added to the very early primary schedule no matter what. This is good.

Tomorrow, Gov. Richardson will be in Virginia along with Tim Kaine, current Lt. Governor of Virginia and Democratic nominee for the Governor of Virginia. That election is very soon and this event is sure to be extremely exciting. So exciting, in fact, that I’ve decided I can’t stay away!

I’ll be blogging about the event when I get back (possibly while I’m down there) and hopefully taking a few pictures so that everyone can get a sense of the momentum and excitement surrounding both Gov. Richardson and the Kaine campaign.