obama-richardson-photoGov. Bill Richardson plans to attend President Obama’s town hall on credit card debt, scheduled for this Thursday morning at Rio Rancho high school, the Albuquerque Journal reports this morning.

NMI plans to liveblog from the event with a panel of experts on credit card debt, starting slightly before the 10 a.m. forum. Join us!

Richardson and Obama haven’t been hanging out much since the GRIPgate-plagued guv withdrew his name from consideration as Obamas’ commerce secretary nominee last December. So the interactions between the two and pleasantries exchanged — or not —  could be its own subplot for the event.

Also, Obama has said that credit card companies have been taking advantage of consumers by unfairly raising interest rates, cutting credit limits and penalizing customers for paying the minimum owed. A bill that would clamp down on credit card companies has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is expected to be brought to a vote in the Senate this week. After a compromise was reached between Senate Democrats and Republicans, passage of the bill appears likely, the Washington Post reports today.