LONDONDERRY - Finally, after three failed swipes by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, wife, Barbara, helped whisk away his drinkable yogurt mustache yesterday during a campaign stop at Stonyfield Farm.
The jovial Democratic presidential hopeful wiggled his head, raised his eyebrows and continued talking about troop withdrawals from Iraq, jobs, and a healthy and clean America.
Richardson's messages seemed to resonate with a crowd in the lobby of the visitors center after his relaxed, neighborly manner won over workers in a tour at the yogurt plant.
"I like him. He's easy," Stonyfield employee Rosa Anaya hollered from atop a machine that stacks yogurt cartons on pallets. Moments ago, Richardson had climbed a steel ladder to shake her hand.
Richardson's 15-minute tour stretched to a half hour as he stopped in his three-piece suit and shiny, brown cowboy boots to chat with line workers, warehouse crews and quality assurance folks.
"He's so happy," warehouse worker Revejean Bernandino of Nashua said.
Bernandino, 27, and Richardson talked soccer as beeping forklifts rolled by. Bernandino said he hadn't met Richardson before yesterday, but he liked him instantly.
Stonyfield number cruncher and environmentalist Kally Abrams invited Richardson to participate in Step It Up 2007 on April 14, when people throughout the country will hike and bike and talk about climate change.
Abrams said she likes the former secretary of energy's commitment to zero emissions and conservation and has narrowed her choice in the New Hampshire primary to Richardson or Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
"I really think people should look past the star power and the money that has been raised," Abrams said. "They need to look at the human."
At this stage of the race for the Democratic nomination, however, it is all about star power, television and raising money, University of New Hampshire pollster and political scientist Andy Smith said yesterday. Poll numbers released Tuesday have Richardson running a distant fifth in the race.
Richardson has raised about $6.5 million in the first quarter of 2007 and has $500,000 cash in hand, his communications director Pahl Shipley said.
Without the big money of the Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards campaigns, which have raised as much as $26 million, Richardson can't afford television advertising. He will have to woo voters the old-fashioned way, by putting miles on his boots and pressing flesh, said Smith, who counts Richardson as a dark horse whose winsome personality could emerge in the top-tier of candidates in the long run.
The jovial Democratic presidential hopeful wiggled his head, raised his eyebrows and continued talking about troop withdrawals from Iraq, jobs, and a healthy and clean America.
Richardson's messages seemed to resonate with a crowd in the lobby of the visitors center after his relaxed, neighborly manner won over workers in a tour at the yogurt plant.
"I like him. He's easy," Stonyfield employee Rosa Anaya hollered from atop a machine that stacks yogurt cartons on pallets. Moments ago, Richardson had climbed a steel ladder to shake her hand.
Richardson's 15-minute tour stretched to a half hour as he stopped in his three-piece suit and shiny, brown cowboy boots to chat with line workers, warehouse crews and quality assurance folks.
"He's so happy," warehouse worker Revejean Bernandino of Nashua said.
Bernandino, 27, and Richardson talked soccer as beeping forklifts rolled by. Bernandino said he hadn't met Richardson before yesterday, but he liked him instantly.
Stonyfield number cruncher and environmentalist Kally Abrams invited Richardson to participate in Step It Up 2007 on April 14, when people throughout the country will hike and bike and talk about climate change.
Abrams said she likes the former secretary of energy's commitment to zero emissions and conservation and has narrowed her choice in the New Hampshire primary to Richardson or Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
"I really think people should look past the star power and the money that has been raised," Abrams said. "They need to look at the human."
At this stage of the race for the Democratic nomination, however, it is all about star power, television and raising money, University of New Hampshire pollster and political scientist Andy Smith said yesterday. Poll numbers released Tuesday have Richardson running a distant fifth in the race.
Richardson has raised about $6.5 million in the first quarter of 2007 and has $500,000 cash in hand, his communications director Pahl Shipley said.
Without the big money of the Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards campaigns, which have raised as much as $26 million, Richardson can't afford television advertising. He will have to woo voters the old-fashioned way, by putting miles on his boots and pressing flesh, said Smith, who counts Richardson as a dark horse whose winsome personality could emerge in the top-tier of candidates in the long run.
For his part, the former ambassador to the United Nations - Richardson recently tried to negotiate a cease-fire in Darfur and this weekend is bound for North Korea to secure remains of soldiers missing from the Korean War - is an old-hand at grass-roots politics.
"I have the world record for shaking hands," he joked.
In his three visits to the Granite State, residents have told him that the No. 1 issue, bar none, is the war in Iraq. Specifically, he said they have told him they are concerned with getting American soldiers out of the war. That concern is followed by jobs and keeping them in New Hampshire, he said, then segued into a discussion of ending dependence on foreign oil.
Richardson favors an effort to reduce that dependence from 65 percent to 10 percent in a decade, he said. He said remaining dependent on foreign oil is a national security issue, considering that many oil-exporting countries are not necessarily allies of America.
Walking from the plant to a vehicle bound for an appearance at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Richardson said he likes grass-roots politics and will meet people across the state in stores, streets and living rooms.
Stonyfield employee Carol Chapman has seen many candidates visit the plant in her 18 years there. She said Richardson talked like a regular person, not a politician.
The visitors center worker has never contemplated a candidate coming to her Brentwood home to visit her and friends, but while listening to Richardson the idea ran through her mind, she said.
"He's real human," she said.
