RICHARDSON REJECTS ‘JUDAS’ LABEL, DEFENDS PRESIDENT CLINTON

A former presidential candidate who endorsed Senator Obama’s campaign last week, Governor Richardson of New Mexico, says a surrogate for Senator Clinton was wrong to label him as “Judas” for jumping on Mr. Obama’s bandwagon.

“I’m not going to get in the gutter like that,” Mr. Richardson said on “Fox News Sunday.” He was responding to a Clinton adviser, James Carville, who was quoted in the New York Times as saying: “Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing if appropriate is ironic.”

“That’s typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency,” Mr. Richardson said on Fox. “I am very loyal to the Clintons,” the former energy secretary and American ambassador to the United Nations under President Clinton said. “But it shouldn’t just be Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton. You know, what about the rest of us?” However, Mr. Richardson said he disagreed with a claim from one of Mr. Obama’s surrogates that Mr. Clinton was using McCarthy-like tactics to suggest that the senator of Illinois was unpatriotic. “I don’t believe President Clinton was implying that,” Mr. Richardson said.

At issue was the former president’s statement last week that a general election race between Mrs. Clinton and Senator McCain would feature “two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country” and would avoid “all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.”

A supporter of Mrs. Clinton, Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania, said Mr. Obama’s team was being hypocritical. “They say the campaign’s too negative, and they go out and turn an innocent remark — Bill Clinton was saying what a lot of us feel. … And instead they launch this all-out attack trying to take an inference out of President Clinton’s words that no fair person could take,” Mr. Rendell told Fox. “If they want to tone it down, don’t accuse someone of McCarthyism.” Mr. Richardson concurred. “There’s too much negativity. We have to stop these personal attacks. They’re reaching excessive amounts,” he said.

ARIZONA GOVERNOR SAYS MICH., FLA. SNUBS WONT HURT OBAMA

A supporter of Senator Obama, Governor Napolitano of Arizona, said she doesn’t agree with Senator Clinton’s assertions that the Democratic nominee would be hurt if Michigan and Florida are locked out of the nomination process. “I think she’s just wrong about that,” Ms. Napolitano told CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “Florida and Michigan: it’s regrettable. It’s a situation caused by their own state parties’ intentional decision not to abide by the rules. … If they’re changed in the middle of the game, which is really what Senator Clinton is proposing, they need to be changed in a way that’s fair to everyone.”

PENNSYLVANIA REGISTRATION DEADLINE TODAY

Today is the deadline for Pennsylvania voters to register to take part in the state’s April 22 primary. The Keystone State uses a closed system, which means one must be registered as a Democrat to vote in that party’s primary. Senator Obama began running television and radio ads last week encouraging Republicans and independents to change their registrations and back him in next month’s contest with Senator Clinton.

CANDIDATES, SPOUSE RELEASE FINAL FOUR PICKS

Teams from states being battled over in the presidential contest just happen to rank high on the NCAA brackets picked by two of the presidential contenders and the famous spouse of another. The front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Senator Obama, has picked North Carolina, Kansas, Pittsburgh, and UCLA. The presumptive nominee for the Republicans, Senator McCain, listed North Carolina, Connecticut, Kansas, and Memphis. Senator Clinton has no official picks, but President Clinton has offered up his choices: North Carolina, Memphis, the University of California at Los Angeles, and his alma mater, Georgetown. “My heart’s with Georgetown, but my head tells me it’s going to be Carolina or Memphis,” Mr. Clinton told XM Radio last week. Georgetown was defeated yesterday.