Abluquerque Tribune reporter Kate Nash weighs in on the topic of the week:

Consider Gov. Bill Richardson’s schedule in the next week and a question looms: When will he finally announce the announcement that he’s already all but announced?

First, he must return from a diplomatic mission to Africa. Then he hits a Democratic Party function in South Carolina. And he has to reveal some legislative initiatives for the 60-day session that starts a week from today.

“There’s no plan yet” for any kind of an announcement, said Amanda Cooper, who managed Richardson’s re-election campaign.

But Richardson told The Tribune last year he would decide whether he’ll run before the Legislature kicks off. With seven days to go, a sign of an announcement seems as distant as the Iowa Caucus.

Nash examines the Guv’s upcoming schedule and decides Richardson might announce on Sunday morning, or on Monday (which echoes what I wrote last week). According to Nash:

Richardson is in Sudan, Africa, until Wednesday or Thursday pushing for a United Nations policing force to enter war-struck Darfur and quell the 3-year-old violence.

On Saturday, he’ll be in South Carolina to speak to current and former Democratic governors, Cooper said.

That leaves room for a Sunday morning talk show announcement. Or it could leave Monday – Martin Luther King Jr. Day and a state holiday – as a possibility.

He already has a news conference planned in Santa Fe on Monday, where he’ll outline his legislative plan for substance abuse treatment, his office said.

Read the rest of Nash’s excellent post.