Gov. Bill Richardson pulls out, impact on Obama campaign

Several sources have confirmed that Gov. Bill Richardson has withdrawn from the presidential primary.

Now, I can't say what the governor will do, after all he was a Clinton appointee, but I do know that there are many of his supporters who are ready to shift over to Barack Obama.

These include Latinos with considerable pull in California and beyond, and other prominent non-Latino Californians. Quite a lot of Richardson's support outside of New Mexico is found in Southern California and Nevada.

My information comes from some very senior elected officials in the state senate here in Sacramento. However, since I do not know when or even if they will make the final decision now to shift to Barack, they can make their own announcements.

Six Los Angeles political leaders threw their support to Obama today even before the Richardson annoucement.

They are: Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena; former Rep. Mel Levine; Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-El Segundo; Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks; West Hollywood Mayor John Duran and Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke.

One of the reasons Latinos like Obama is that he was the only front-runner to openly state when a high pressure questions was posed during a debate that he supports driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.