Richardson fights to hit home with N.H. voters

Touts his N.E. connection, experience

By James W. Pindell, Globe Correspondent | December 22, 2007

HUDSON, N.H. - Before he was a US Senate aide, a congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, secretary of energy, governor of New Mexico, or a Democratic presidential candidate, Bill Richardson was a tall, lanky 17-year-old standing on Lowell Road in Concord, Mass., looking for a ride.

Luckily for him, Barbara Flavin had room in her green station wagon.

Flavin lived across the street from the Middlesex School, a boarding school in Concord that Richardson attended. It was customary for local people to pick up the Middlesex students in town and give them a ride to the school, three miles away. Flavin knew of Richardson because she and her mother had watched him play baseball. She offered him a ride that began a seven-year courtship that led to a wedding in Medford, Mass., and 35 years of marriage.

"I remember thinking how pretty she was," Richardson said in an interview, reminiscing about the day they met, with Barbara at his side and smiling at the compliment.

This is a presidential primary season crowded with many candidates, but the lower-tier candidates struggle to get coverage and distinguish themselves from the pack. Yet even though he has lived in New Mexico since 1978, Richardson could make an argument that he is almost as much a New Englander as campaign rival Chris Dodd, the Connecticut senator...[Open in new window]