A CANDIDATE TRIES TO KEEP HIS TROUBLES BEHIND HIM

ALBUQUERQUE, April 9 -- After a short speech on Monday night he invited
questions, and it came as no surprise, he said later, that no one in the
audience mentioned Wen Ho Lee, nobody asked whether China had succeeded in
buying nuclear secrets, and Bill Clinton's name never came up.

That is the way it usually goes, Bill Richardson said, completing another
day in his campaign for governor of New Mexico. The state has too many
other problems, he maintained, for voters to worry about ancient political
history, even if he played a prominent role in it.

A former congressman, onetime ambassador to the United Nations and
secretary of an Energy Department that struggled with security
shortcomings, Mr. Richardson, 54, is now the only Democrat running. His
popularity is so strong and his fund-raising efforts have been so
successful that the two other Democratic aspirants dropped out.

That has given him a clear path to the November election to face the
surviving Republican among three competing in a June 4 primary. Gov. Gary
E. Johnson, a Republican well known for his efforts promoting drug
decriminalization, is barred by law from seeking a third term.

For now, none of the Republican candidates seem strong enough to win, and
certainly none can match Mr. Richardson's political portfolio: 15 years in
the House of Representatives followed by four as the highest-ranking
Hispanic in the Clinton administration. Two of the Republicans, John A.
Sanchez and Robert M. Burpo, are state lawmakers; the third, Walter D.
Bradley, has been lieutenant governor for eight years.

But they have none of Mr. Richardson's political baggage, either. That
means he could have a fight on his hands in a state that showed dramatic
ambivalence in the 2000 presidential election. After a recount, Al Gore
carried New Mexico by all of 366 votes, making this the only state he won
in the interior West.

"No primary, it's a plus," Mr. Richardson said before addressing parents
and supporters of a thriving private school here. "In the past, the
Democratic candidate for governor was so wounded going out of the primary.
This will give me a chance to unite the party sooner."

One challenge for Mr. Richardson is to convince voters that he can leverage
his national and world experience to help a state that lags most others in
vital areas like per capita income, job creation, teacher salaries and
health insurance for children.

Mr. Richardson places blame for New Mexico's troubles on a governor
"obsessed with drug policy" to the exclusion of other issues, an accusation
dismissed by Republicans, who complain that the Democratic-controlled
Legislature thwarted many of Mr. Johnson's efforts to tackle the state's
biggest problems.

In any event, Mr. Richardson said, those problems account for the kinds of
questions he most often faces while campaigning. He answers with proposals
for restructuring the tax code to attract businesses, creating a high-tech
corridor in the Albuquerque area and promoting charter and magnet schools.

"That other stuff?" he said of his Energy Department tenure. "Never comes
up. Non-issues. The only time I hear about it is when I do national
interviews."

Or when Republicans take aim at him, in attacks he expects to intensify.
John Dendahl, the Republican state chairman, said questions about Mr.
Richardson's leadership skills, as reflected in the Energy Department's
problems on his watch, could emerge as the Republican nominee's best weapon.

"I wouldn't want to run on that record," Mr. Dendahl said today, contending
that Mr. Richardson presented a "target-rich environment" for the winner of
the Republican primary, not least because of his close relationship with
Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Richardson says he inherited the problems at Energy and, despite the
events that ultimately brought Mr. Clinton's impeachment, bristles at the
notion that the former president could be a liability. He said he was even
weighing the possibility of inviting Mr. Clinton into the state to campaign
for him.

"I feel grateful to him," Mr. Richardson said. "He put me in two cabinet
positions. I'm proud of my service. He's my friend, and I probably will
invite him."

But "Clinton is not the issue here," the candidate also said. "I have to
run my own race."

Mr. Richardson is one of four cabinet officers from the Clinton
administration who are running for governor this year. Former Attorney
General Janet Reno is a candidate in Florida, former Labor Secretary Robert
B. Reich in Massachusetts and former Housing Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo in
New York. Julia Payne, a spokeswoman for Mr. Clinton, said he would do
"whatever he can to get Democrats elected."

F. Chris Garcia, a professor of political science at the University of New
Mexico, said Mr. Richardson's record, a source of pride to many New
Mexicans -- especially Hispanics, who make up more than 40 percent of the
state's population -- might be too much for a Republican to overcome.
Professor Garcia predicted that only "a major error or blunder" would cost
Mr. Richardson a victory in November. But he wondered whether the
Richardson campaign path was "too smooth" for now, posing a risk of
overconfidence.

"He might not do all the things he has to do," Professor Garcia said. "If
he appears to be too good to be true, people may start looking to see if
that's a possibility."

Mr. Richardson said he was taking no chances, planning to start a big media
campaign after the Republican primary in June. "This is a wildly
independent state that shifts dramatically every four years," he said. "And
we have so many problems. I want to be viewed as someone with the new ideas
to address them."