WASHINGTON – New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson aired a new ad in Iowa and New Hampshire on Wednesday, demanding that all U.S. troops come out of Iraq and calling on Congress “to stand up to this president.”

The ad opened as Senate Republicans sunk a Democratic plan that would have required troops to begin coming home within 120 days, with a complete pullout by April 20, 2008.

“Our troops have done everything we’ve asked and I don’t want to see any more die,” Richardson says in the ad, as he walks through the foothills of his home state.

Richardson asserts in the ad that “the one thing the Iraqis agree on is they want us to leave.” As supporting evidence, the campaign cited data from WorldPublicOpinion.org where 71 percent of Iraqis say they would like the Iraqi government to ask for U.S. led forces to be withdrawn within a year or less.

Another poll in March, however, was not as definitive. The poll, conducted for ABC News, USA Today and other news organization, found that 35 percent of Iraqis polled wanted troops to “leave now,” and 38 percent wanted troops to “remain until security is restored.” Twenty-five percent said they wanted troops to remain until the Iraqi government was stronger or until Iraqi forces could operate independently.

By calling for “all” troops to leave, Richardson is trying to distinguish himself from other Democratic presidential candidates who have envisioned leaving some soldiers in safer border areas to hunt for al-Qaida members, monitor civil unrest and train Iraqi troops.

The ad cost more than $150,000 to air in Iowa and more than $55,000 to air in New Hampshire, according to figures obtained from a rival campaign. It is scheduled to run through Monday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ A consultant to Republican John McCain has reversed her decision to resign from his presidential campaign and will continue helping him build ties with conservatives in Iowa.

Marlys Popma resigned from the campaign on Monday but reconsidered after speaking with McCain and others.

“I got skittish about their commitment to Iowa,” Popma said Wednesday. “I decided to leave them before they left us.”

Popma had joined a string of consultants and staffers who left McCain’s Iowa campaign, including consultants Ed Failor Jr., and Karen Slifka, and communications director Tim Miller.

McCain supporters have said he’ll campaign for this winter’s Iowa caucuses with a staff of about a half-dozen.

Popma said speaking with McCain and others in the campaign “convinced me of the seriousness of their commitment.”

CLEVELAND (AP) _ Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who is a vegan, has been hospitalized with severe effects of apparent food poisoning.

The 60-year-old Ohio congressman became sick Sunday night while flying to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to address the national Longshoremen’s convention. He went ahead with a speech Monday but immediately returned home and was hospitalized in the Cleveland area.

The name of the hospital wasn’t disclosed. Andy Juniewicz, a campaign spokesman, said Kucinich was improving Tuesday night and said no medical update was available Wednesday morning.

Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor, is making his second, long-shot bid for the presidency.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group, said Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit seeking Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton’s records from her years as first lady.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the National Archives, contends the archives has a legal obligation to demand the records from the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., and to make them publicly available, according to a Judicial Watch statement.

The group is seeking Clinton’s calendar, daily office diary, telephone log book and chronological file for the eight years her husband, Bill Clinton, was president.

The group filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the archives on April 5, 2006 for the materials but never received a reply, the statement said.

Judicial Watch, founded in 1994, has filed about 80 lawsuits against the Clintons over the years, including one on behalf of Gennifer Flowers, who said she had had an affair with President Clinton.

The group has also sued to obtain the release of records from the Bush administration, including records of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ Elizabeth Edwards tells voters her husband, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, is a tough guy “who can stare the worst in the face and not blink” in an ad set to start airing Wednesday in New Hampshire.

Elizabeth Edwards, who makes frequent campaign stops in early voting states for her husband, appears in the ad that the campaign hopes will highlight the couple’s marriage.

“I have been blessed for the last 30 years to be married to the most optimistic person that I have ever met,” she says as photographs from the campaign fade in and out. “But at the same time he has an unbelievable toughness, particularly about other people, and that is his ability to fight for them.”

John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential nominee, was wrapping up an anti-poverty tour through eight states on Wednesday.

“You’re not going to outsmart him. He works harder than any human being that I know, always has,” Elizabeth Edwards says. “It’s unbelievably important that, in our president, we have someone who can stare the worst in the face and not blink.”

The ad will run through Sunday. It cost more than $80,000 to air, according to figures obtained from a rival campaign.

Elizabeth Edwards in March announced that her breast cancer had returned and spread to bone. During her first bout with cancer, she was treated with surgery and several months of radiation and chemotherapy. But the recurrence of the cancer hangs over the campaign, both personally and politically.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Wednesday that change is needed but praised President Bush for keeping the U.S. safe during the war on terror.

The former Massachusetts governor criticized Democrats for not talking about terrorism.

“There is war being waged by terrorists and so long as there’s a Republican president, there will be a war waged on terrorist,” he said during the annual Lincoln Day Dinner.

Earlier, Romney attended fundraisers in Aspen, Denver and Colorado Springs that raised more than $150,000, said Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Romney. Before his visit, Romney was leading GOP candidates in fundraising, having raised $495,408 in the state.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was second, with $272,861 raised so far.

Associated Press writers Mike Glover in Des Moines, Iowa; Philip Elliott in Concord, N.H.; Joan Lowy in Washington; and Catherine Tsai in Colorado Springs, Colo., contributed to this report.

On the Net: http://kucinich.us

A service of the Associated Press(AP)