Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson descended from the car, glanced at the voters gathered outside the 18th-century meetinghouse and stated the obvious: "I'm in Marlow."

With that, Marlow ceased to be a town ignored by presidential candidates. Richardson's visit yesterday afternoon made him the first candidate to visit the roughly 800-resident town, which - due to its distance from major highways or rail lines - can make for an inconvenient destination. Despite the diminutive town's location, Richardson forecast a budding relationship between Marlow and presidential candidates.

"This is a great American story about Marlow being neglected," Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, told about 100 voters who squeezed into Jones Hall. "Well, no longer. And I predict that you're going to see every candidate in the nation."

The story of Richardson's visit begins with a popular misconception: That presidential candidates lavish attention on small New Hampshire towns, traversing the state in search of hands to shake and living rooms to visit. Not so, Marlow residents say. Candidates gravitate toward urban areas, where they can meet more voters, and rarely visit near the Vermont border, Marlow residents said yesterday.

"In New Hampshire, I think, candidates tend to stay to the east," said Pat Anderson, of Marlow, who said that she's previously traveled to Keene and Newport to glimpse candidates. "They forget the rest of us over here."

Earlier this year, Marlow's predicament made the airwaves. Richardson's campaign staff learned of the National Public Radio broadcast, which described the town's lack of campaign visits. And so it was that the campaign released a statement this week titled "Richardson Will Become the First Ever Candidate to Visit Marlow."

Although Richardson made a crack about Marlow's size - after learning that the town didn't have a July Fourth parade, he joked, "You had to combine with, what, 10 other towns?" - he touted the event as the sort of intimate gathering his campaign is built upon. Volunteers directed parking, making sure to keep clear the spot for Richardson's vehicle, and homemade cookies, brownies and lemon squares marked the occasion.

And it gave him a distinction, however minor, in the crowded Democratic field.

That distinction could easily have been lost: In October 1912, then-President Taft was scheduled to visit Marlow during his re-election campaign. His party took a wrong turn, and South Acworth won the honor, according to the Marlow Historical Society.

"I don't have the money all these other candidates have. I don't have the celebrity status. But I'm a grassroots candidate," said Richardson, who came to Marlow from Manchester, and was headed to Keene, Stoddard and New Ipswich. "This is how I'm campaigning."

"You New Hampshirites, you like underdogs, you like upsets," he added. "So I feel good."

Amid discussion of the event's historical significance, there was talk of education policy, terrorism and immigration. Richardson pledged to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq, saying that he'd use diplomacy to ease the conflict. Recalling President Kennedy (a reference Richardson made several times during the event), he urged Americans to sacrifice to curtail energy usage. He called for universal health care and bemoaned the state of American education, saying that he would offer preschool to all children.

There were attempts to reference the audience, such as when Richardson pointed to a young boy in the audience, who was entertaining himself by drawing. "Look at what he's doing, or she. She? He? Jeez, you look like the Beatles; you look great, kid," Richardson said, before plowing ahead. "Art in schools, I believe, can unleash the mind."

When the questions began, they came with a frequency that laid plain the years of presidential neglect: Gun control, the Patriot Act, competition with China, immigration. Richardson spent several minutes on each, calling for an earned path to legalization for illegal immigrants and instant background checks on gun owners, while stressing his support for the right to bear arms. When the event's organizer announced that Richardson couldn't take additional questions, Richardson asked for the remaining queries, saying that he'd answer them while shaking hands.

According to Richardson, his resume (former ambassador to the United Nations, governor, former energy secretary) should vault him over other, better-known candidates. "I worked with President Clinton, and I'm very proud of him," Richardson said. "But I feel I'm running against two giants: The president and his wife. And my point is I think we should make this decision based on qualifications."

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