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Posted: August 17, 2007 4:32 PM
Sex, Jobs and Barbeque: Just Another Week on the Richardson Campaign
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New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson’s Nevada campaign took a hit Thursday after an aid quit when the Associated Press revealed he had worked for a brothel and is wanted on felony charges in California.

Kristian Forland, the former eastern Nevada field director, was connected to the legal brothel, Mona’s Ranch in Nevada, according to police investigators, and is wanted in California for failure to appear in court on counts of writing bad checks.

Richardson spokesman Josh McNeil said the campaign knew nothing about the charges against Forland or his work for the brothel.

Ironically, the Forland story hit on the same day the campaign announced plans to expand operations in the early caucus state. Richardson released a statement saying, “The road to the White House runs through Nevada.”

Richardson was in Iowa all week and spent Tuesday at the state fair, shaking hands, giving speeches and cooking barbeque as a guest celebrity chef. His campaign began running two new ads in the state this week about how the governor created jobs through tax subsidies in New Mexico.

Richardson followed up on the ads by outlining his plan for the American economy and jobs. The plan includes balancing the budget, promoting “green jobs” in renewable energy, increasing tax credits for investment in new technology, and boosting math and science education.

Meanwhile, the question of what Richardson meant in his comments at a forum on gay and lesbian issues, where he said being gay was a choice, continued to burble in media reports and blog sites.

In a column in the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart wrote “to gays and lesbians, flubbing the choice-vs.-nature question is like botching the answer to ‘What’s one plus one?’” On the Daily Show, host Jon Stewart said Richardson should ‘elabo-crazy’ on his answer.

Richardson made the rounds to gay publications and Web sites with his mea culpa, telling queerty.com: “I thought it was a tricky science question, where you put politics into science. I think the word Melissa used was ‘biological.’ Since I use ‘choice’ so much — I’m so committed to choice, a woman’s right to choose — I thought that was the appropriate answer.”

Richardson stays in Iowa Friday and plans to take part in the Democratic debate Sunday on ABC.