Paul Gessing, president of New Mexico’s Rio Grand Foundation, asserts Democratic presidential aspirant Bill Richardson hasn’t earned “his stripes as a ‘fiscal conservative’.” Gessing takes the state's governor to task in a Sat., July 14 Wall Street Journal commentary, “Richardson’s Santa Fe Line.”

One snapshot statistic helps underscore the think tank leader’s assertion. He points out, “The governor asked for and received an 11 percent increase in spending this year, the biggest jump in memory, outstripping inflation and population growth in the state.”

Gessing calls the current Land of Enchantment governor “a profligate spender who is laying groundwork that will make it harder to keep taxes in check and the budget in balance in the coming years. Mr. Richardson isn't a spending hawk. He's more like a roadrunner – New Mexico's state bird – darting across the landscape, trying to stay ahead of the anvil that is inevitably coming.” Perhaps in this case, unlike the cartoon, the electoral anvil will find Roadrunner Richardson.