Barbara RichardsonFor Bill and Barbara Richardson it all began with a ride to school. The rest is 35 years of love, history and public service.

“You are going to laugh, but, the truth is, [Bill] was a tall, shy, skinny kid back then,” Barbara said as she recalled the first time she and Bill met in Concord, Mass. He attended a boarding school located across the street from her home. On the day they first met, Barbara gave him a ride from downtown back to the school.

“I like to tell him that he’s still tall,” she quickly added with a laugh. “He’s also trying to be skinny, albeit unsuccessfully. And, he’ll never be shy again.”

Before they met, Barbara had heard about Bill, then an all-star player on the school’s baseball team. The two of them “just hit it off,” she said.

“I don’t know really what it was. Perhaps it was just the proximity of our house to the school and that he was able to take refuge there. My father always says that he fed [Bill] his dowry over the seven years that we dated. So, I guess he enjoyed the meals over across the street. It was definitely a natural attraction and we’ve been together ever since — we’ve virtually grown up together.”

Bill was the only Hispanic student at the school, having come to Massachusetts in 1961 from his home in Mexico City. Just a few short months after that first car ride, Bill left a sombrero and a love note on Barbara’s porch. They were married in 1972 and, as newlyweds, made their way to Washington, D.C. where Bill worked on Capitol Hill and began learning first-hand about politics.

From there the couple moved to New Mexico and Bill worked as a staffer for the local Democratic Party while teaching government at a community college. Soon, however, Bill would win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and the couple would be back in the beltway. After 14 years in Congress, Bill served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary to the Department of Energy and, currently, as governor of New Mexico.

In 2002, when Bill was first elected governor, both he and Barbara set to work to rebuild the struggling state. As the state’s First Lady, Barbara served as honorary chairwoman for the New Mexico Immunization coalition.

“Immunization is one of those issues that found me when I learned very early on in my husband’s first administration that New Mexico was 49th in the country,” she said. “I immediately began to think about what I could do to change that. So, I assembled the forces — Children, Youth and Families, our department of health, and some of the other related agencies — to really address the issue. Because, to me, that was a no-brainer. There’s no reason that children shouldn’t be immunized in a day and age when these vaccines are available. I’m old enough to remember the days of the iron lung and the people who had polio. I really thought it was important and we’ve made some great progress. We’re not 100 percent yet and we’re not where I want to be, but we’ve certainly raised the awareness which is a big part of the battle.”

In just three years, New Mexico moved from 49th in the nation for number of children immunized to 15th. The state recently earned a national award from the Center for Disease Control for being the state with the most improved immunization record.

“In the 1990s there was a shortage of some of the vaccines,” she said. “I also think a lot of the issue was education, especially in some of the more rural counties. Here in Iowa, you have a number of rural counties and trying to reach those people, especially a transit population… it is not always easy for parents to know the proper timing of vaccines.”

When asked about the “honey, I think I want to run for president” conversation, Richardson laughed and said that discussion was pretty “one-sided.”

“He did most of the talking,” she said. “I think I was too stunned… He had some persuading to do, you know? This is not an easy undertaking in any sense of the word. I think any spouse will tell you that. It’s a big decision and a huge consideration. It’s also an investment of time, money and effort.

“You just don’t sit down one night and say, ‘Gee, honey, I want to run for president so I think I’ll do it tomorrow and announce.’ I mean, it is something that happens over time. I think he has the experience. He’s spent 25 years doing all of these different things, both legislatively and in the executive branch. His hostage negotiations, I think, make him particularly unique and separates him out from some of the other candidates. I think it is something that develops over time… that you drop a hint here and there. Would I have gone out and said, ‘Gee, Bill, I think you ought to run for president’? No. I wouldn’t have. But, given that he’s made that decision, I told him as I always have that I would support him.”

Traveling and meeting new people in Iowa and across the nation, she said, has been one of the aspects of campaigning that she’s enjoyed most.

“It’s been a really interesting experience for me. Honestly, people have been terrific — no matter who they support,” she said. “They’ve all been really nice to us and very receptive. I think when people meet Bill, they react to him very positively. So, his challenge is just to get out there and meet people and let them know what he things.

“Iowa is half the size of New Mexico geographically, but it still a big state to cross. It all takes time. Putting together a nationwide campaign is a tremendous effort. Trying to assemble your staff people and raising money at the same time is really demanding. The whole point of your effort is to get out and meet people and to familiarize yourself with the issues — not only nationally, but of the state — and then also to familiarize them with your record. That’s the whole point of the thing, but you have to spend so much time fund raising. That’s a really difficult part of the campaign.”

The media and its lack of attention to all the candidates, she said, is a challenge.

“I think the other part that’s been frustrating somewhat for me and, I think, some of his supporters is this idea that there are only three candidates out there and that the race is over,” she said. “That is not at all the case. If you look at history, if you look at a lot of pollsters and listen to them, they will tell you that the candidate who is ahead at this point has not traditionally been the nominee. That’s frustrating when there are other candidates out there who are working just as hard — maybe not raising as much money, maybe not with the same name recognition — but, certainly, they are working. They are certainly putting out the same effort. I think it is wrong to just preclude that the race is over.”

With the national media so focused on only three candidates, she said, the role of the early states becomes even more important.

“I think what I’ve learned is that both in Iowa and New Hampshire the voters take their responsibility extremely seriously,” she said. “Because they are the first states and because they are going to be the ones who will thrust a candidate or two into the front of the pack, they take this responsibility seriously and I think that is very important. It is gratifying as a candidate to see because they weigh people equally in terms of opportunity to address them as caucus-goers.”

Meeting and learning more about family members provides voters just one more insight into the candidates, she said.

“People are always very gracious to me,” she said. “They like to meet the spouse. I think it gives them a little bit better perspective on who the candidate is. It says something about the candidate.”

Barbara isn’t willing yet to discuss what particular issue she might champion as First Lady of the United States, preferring, she said, “to take one step at a time.”

“I’ve always been involved as First Lady in New Mexico with domestic violence, immunizations and literacy,” she said. “I certainly would not take a back seat in relation to the issues I care about, but, to get specific, I haven’t gotten there yet.”