After months of campaigning largely on foreign policy, especially the Iraq war, Bill Richardson took a domestic tack on this week's trip to New Hampshire, speaking about health insurance, pensions and elder care in Concord yesterday morning and touting his plan to improve job prospects at events elsewhere in the state.

Richardson, a Democrat, described what he says is a "strained" middle class struggling with health care costs, and worried about foreclosures and their pensions. He referred often to work he's done as governor of New Mexico, promising to promote similar programs from the White House. The next president, he said, must skip the squabbles and commit to working with members of both political parties.

"If you look at all the major issues we're dealing with, whether it's Social Security, whether it's health care, whether it's protecting our civil liberties, somehow the president and Congress have to fix problems," he said to about 50 people at an AARP-sponsored breakfast in Concord. "We have to govern in a bipartisan way. I've been a diplomat all my life, I've brought people together. I've been able over the years to reconcile differences."

Primary watchers say Richardson's detour into domestic policy is rooted in a few things: First, conditions in Iraq have improved somewhat in recent months. Second, Richardson, who's hovering around 10 percent in most polls, is looking for something to pull undecided voters his way.

"Despite his background, despite his experience, he hasn't really distinguished himself on foreign policy," said Wayne Lesperance, associate professor of political science at New England College in Henniker. "Richardson is not the candidate with the lack of experience. He just hadn't been able to find a way to resonate with voters. Domestic policy might be the ticket."

Thursday's burst of snow made travel rough, but Richardson arrived in New Hampshire a few hours before dawn. By 8 a.m. yesterday, he was shaking hands with AARP members at a breakfast meeting at the Grappone Center in Concord. Richardson was the latest in a string of candidates to address members as part of AARP's Divided We Fail project, which is funneling millions into urging candidates to develop bipartisan approaches to improving American's health care and financial prospects.

Richardson touched on myriad issues during a half-hour of questions, including education (he'd require teachers to make at least $40,000), nutrition (New Mexico no longer sells junk food in its schools) and mental health (insurance companies, he said, should cover treatment like they would for physical ailments).

But, considering the age of the audience members, it wasn't surprising that many questions focused on Social Security. Economic growth, Richardson said, is the best way to help Americans plan for retirement.

"I don't want to mess with the retirement age, I don't want to reduce benefits," he said. "The way you fix the problem is through economic growth. We've got to stop raiding the Social Security trust fund, and we should stop talking about privatizing, get Democrats and Republicans in a room and say let's fix this. This is the safety net."

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By MEG HECKMAN

Monitor staff