RACINE - As much as Mayor Gary Becker likes Bill Richardson, he doesn't envision shipping water from the Great Lakes to New Mexico anytime soon.

Becker wants to send a message to Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, and his fellow presidential candidates: The Great Lakes should be an important issue on the campaign trail.

Racine will host a group of mayors on Thursday and Friday, from cities around the Great Lakes region, at Wingspread Conference Center in Wind Point.

Members of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, including Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, will visit Racine, where they'll call on presidential candidates to take definitive action on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.

Becker belongs to the group which includes mayors from Great Lakes cities in Canada and the United States. The group works actively with federal, state and provincial governments to advance the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes.

"It's one of the world's greatest resources, and it kind of gets, in our opinion, short shrift. It's overlooked," Becker said Tuesday. "Everyone is trying to bring this more to a national level."

Becker chairs the group's board of directors which will be here for its annual winter conference. The mayors will make an announcement about protecting the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River at a news conference at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Wingspread.

Becker, Daley, Mayor Lynn Peterson of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Mayor David Miller of Toronto also will address the media and answer questions.

The board, on behalf of the organization and its members, will call on presidential candidates, the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, the Canadian government, the Ontario and Quebec governments and local governments to take definitive action on the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.

The group has been active in various Great Lakes issues - from creating clean beaches and reducing lake pollution to encouraging restoration and fighting invasive species.

This is an important issue for communities like Racine, Becker said.

"People love to talk about regionalism," he said. "If you want to talk about it, you have to get out and do something. People aren't going to come to you.

"This is a critical thing to this region of the world. We've done a good job of making this

visible."