U.S. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Richardson put his right hand on ice Saturday night after eclipsing a handshake record set in 1907 by former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

　　Richardson’s new mark of 13,392 for an eight-hour period, with a Guinness World Records official standing by, went well beyond the Roosevelt record of 8,513 handshakes set at the White House.

　　Richardson divided his handshaking between the New Mexico State Fair and a tailgate party outside University Stadium, where the University of New Mexico Lobos hosted the Baylor Bears in a football game.

　　“The reason I did this was to show we have a grassroots campaign and that politics can be fun. Politics is people,” he said.

　　As it happens, Richardson broke the record only for politician handshakes.

　　The overall record for glad-handing, Guiness representative Stuart Cloxton said, is held by Yogesh Sharma of India, who set a record of 31,118 handshakes in January 1996 at a trade fair.

　　Richardson, a former New Mexico congressman and Energy Secretary under President Clinton, faces Republican nominee John Sanchez and Green Party candidate David Bacon in the Nov. 5 election.

　　(SD-Agencies)