Public Eye

If the chilaquiles were not so spicy as in his home state of New Mexico, Gov. Bill Richardson was not heard to complain Thursday morning. The former Clinton administration UN ambassador held court in the gardens of Carolyn and Craig Watson's South Pasadena home at a Barack Obama campaign fund-raiser organized by the Watsons and the estimable Lena Kennedy, chief Obama Mama in our region.

That's Craig pictured above with Richardson. Craig noted that his Methodist minister grandfather led the crusade to recall corrupt Los Angeles Mayor Frank Shaw in 1935 from the very same entry hall in which we were sitting, so that the grand place has a long history of playing host to politics.

Dozens of local Obama supporters were on hand, including Brenda and Bill Galloway, Roberta Martinez, Barbara Cole, Rick Cole, Kitty and Ralph McKnight, Michele Zack, John Kennedy.

Press were not welcome, as members of the Obama campaign made known to me politely and members of Richardson's staff made known to me most annoyingly and without introducing themselves. When they took me to the woodshed for the crime of taking notes I had to ask them to close the garden door as their rude loud voices were disturbing the folks inside. (The governor himself didn't mind my being there. He introduced himself to me, I told him who and what I was, and we chatted about our mutual Pasadena and New Mexico roots. It was much later that the staffers saw me scribbling. One of them wanted to "confiscate" my notes.)

But I don't think they'll mind me paraphrasing the governor's anecdote about being born in Pasadena's Huntington Hospital: His father, an Army man who was born in Nicaragua, always wanted his son to be born in the States. So they came here, and he was. After Richardson announced he was running for president at a Los Angeles event a couple of years ago, he met some executives from the Huntington. "We'd love to have you here for a fund-raiser, governor!" he was told. "Great -- for my campaign!" "No -- for the hospital!"