Gov. Bill Richardson is back with more "job interview" ads — but this time he's the one conducting the interview.

The new ad is an anti-drunken-driving commercial produced by the state Department of Transportation. It is scheduled to begin airing Tuesday in English and Spanish on New Mexico radio and television stations.

Perhaps Richardson's most popular contribution to the 2008 presidential race was his series of humorous "job interview" ads, which showed Richardson as an earnest job applicant whose impressive résumé fails to impress a would-be employer. The spots won wide praise from pundits, though they didn't translate into many votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, where they aired.

In the new PSA, Richardson is at a desk behind a nameplate that says "Governor."

"So you want to work for me," Richardson says to a man on the other side of the desk.

"As you can see, I have plenty of experience," the applicant says, showing he's wearing handcuffs. The applicant (actors Eric Normington in the English version, Christian Lanz in the Spanish) keeps talking, fumbling a bit with the cuffs until Richardson finally says, "I think I've heard enough."

As the applicant hops to the door (perhaps he's in leg irons too), a voice-over says, "That DWI can sure leave quite an impression."

In the English version, Normington ad-libs, "Nice power beard."

A grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funded the ads, which were produced for the state DOT by VaughnWedeen Creative Inc. of Albuquerque, and shot and edited by Southwest Productions, another New Mexico company. Both Normington and Lanz are Los Angeles actors.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.

On the Web

www.nmshtd.state.nm.us/stopdwi/DWIvideos.html