Bill Richardson

For other people named William Richardson, see William Richardson (disambiguation).

Bill Richardson
Governor Bill Richardson.
30th Governor of New Mexico
Incumbent
Assumed office January 1, 2003
Lieutenant	Diane Denish
Preceded by	Gary E. Johnson
9th United States Secretary of Energy
In office August 18, 1998 – January 20, 2001
Preceded by	Federico Peña
Succeeded by	Spencer Abraham
21st United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office January 21, 1997 – September 1998
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Madeleine Albright
Succeeded by	Richard Holbrooke
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico's 3 district
In office January 3 1983 – February 13 1997
Preceded by	N/A (newly created district)
Succeeded by	William T. Redmond
Personal details
Born	(1947-11-15) November 15, 1947 Pasadena, California, USA
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Barbara Richardson
Alma mater	Tufts University

William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is the current Governor of New Mexico, and a candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election. He has previously served as a U.S. Representative, Ambassador to the United Nations, and as the U.S. Secretary of Energy. He was chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention as well as Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association in 2005 and 2006, overseeing the Democrats' re-capturing of a majority of the country's governorships. Richardson has been recognized for negotiating the release of hostages, American servicemen, and political prisoners in North Korea, Iraq, and Cuba.

Lineage

Bill Richardson's mother, María Luisa López-Collada Márquez , is a Mexican banker born in Mexico City, D.F., Mexico, on 18 June 1914 residing in Mexico City as of 2007. His father, whom she married in 1936, was William Blaney/Blaine Richardson II (b. 25 May 1891, Chinandega, Nicaragua, d. 27 July 1972, Mexico City, D.F., Mexico). His paternal grandparents were Boston-born naturalist William Blaney Richardson and Rosaura Ojeda Medero (b. 13 August 1872, Santo Domingo Tehuantepec, Oaxaca). The elder William and Rosaura married around 1888 and, in the 1890s, moved to Matagalpa, Nicaragua where William did research for Smithsonian Institution as a naturalist, becoming a collector of biological specimens in Central and South America and the Caribbean for various US museums between at least 1886 and 1927; some of his findings were published in the Boston Globe up to 1927, year of his death at Matagalpa, Nicaragua on 1 December. Both of them were buried at the Cementerio de Extranjeros at Matagalpa. William Jr. was born on a boat heading to Nicaragua 1891; his brothers and sisters, 10 in total, were born in Nicaragua. After his mother's death in childbirth at Matagalpa, Nicaragua, on 11 June 1906, William Jr. and his two younger sisters were taken by his grandmother, Vesta Hodsdon Richardson, from Nicaragua to Boston.

Prepared at Goddard Seminary in Barre, Vermont (now Goddard College), BS Tufts 1915, Hon MA Tufts 1940, William B. Richardson II worked as a manager of the Mexico City branch of the from 1929 to 1956 and as an executive in Mexico City for Citibank, where he eventually met and married María Luisa López-Collada Márquez, who was his secretary. Before the births of the couple's children, Bill and Vesta Luisa (now Dr. Vesta Luisa Richardson López-Collada, of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts), María Luisa Richardson was sent to deliver them in Pasadena, where her husband's sister Rosa Natalie lived. As Richardson explained in an article in the Washington Post, "My father had a complex about not having been born in the United States." After the death of Richardson's father in 1972 his mother remarried at Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1985 Mexican nutritionist Salvador Zubirán Anchondo.

Earlier generations (prior to the first William Blaine) in the Richardson line were Massachusetts commercial merchants, such as a wharfinger. He is also a descendant of Mayflower passengers through the Richardson line.

His maternal grandfather was the Spanish-born Manuel López-Collada Márquez (Villaviciosa, Oviedo (now Asturias), 3 January 1880 – Villaviciosa, Oviedo (now Asturias), 6 January 1936, son of Manuel López-Collada and wife María Teresa Márquez) and Mexican wife (married at Villaviciosa, Oviedo (now Asturias), in October 1910) Maria Márquez Vazconcelos (Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, 16 May 1894 – Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca, 15 October 1950, daughter of Jesus Márquez and wife María Vazconcelos, whose surname is of Portuguese origin).

Early life and education

Bill Richardson was born at the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California. He was raised in Mexico City, but his parents sent him to Massachusetts at age 13 to attend a Boston-area preparatory school. Richardson played baseball in high school at Middlesex School in Concord, and was a pitcher. Richardson went on to play for Tufts University. It has been alleged that he was scouted, recruited and drafted in the 1966 Major League Baseball amateur draft; although this turned out to be incorrect, it is true that he was heavily scouted, recruited and told that he would be drafted, which did not occur as he chose to attend college rather than play professionally. Arm trouble later further prevented him from pursuing a professional career in baseball.

At Tufts, he majored in French and political science and was a brother and president of Delta Tau Delta. He then earned a master's degree from Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. While still in high school, he met his wife, Barbara Flavin. They married in 1972, and have no children. Although the Vietnam War was raging during the years Richardson was in college, and although Richardson was a good athlete, he did not serve in the military.

Early political career

After college, Richardson worked on congressional relations for the State Department. He was later a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In 1978, he moved to Santa Fe and ran for Congress in 1980, losing narrowly to longtime 1st District congressman and future United States Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan (R). Two years later, Richardson was elected to New Mexico's newly created third district, taking in most of the northern part of the state.

U.S. Congressman

Richardson in Congress

Richardson spent a little more than 14 years in Congress. As a congressman, he kept his interest in foreign relations. He visited Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, India, North Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Sudan to represent U.S. interests.

Richardson served one term as Chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Native American Affairs in the 103rd Congress (1993–1994). While in the House, Richardson sponsored bills such as the Indian Tribal Justice Act, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments, the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act, the American Indian Agricultural Resource Management Act, the Indian Dams Safety Act, the Tribal Self-Governance Act, the Indian Tribal Jurisdiction Bill (commonly known as the “Duro Fix”) and the Jicarilla Apache Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act.

In 1995, he traveled to Baghdad with Peter Bourne and engaged in lengthy one-on-one negotiations with Saddam Hussein to secure the release of two American aerospace workers who had been captured by the Iraqis after wandering over the Kuwaiti border. He became a member of the Democratic leadership, where he worked closely with Bill Clinton on several issues.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

In 1997, Clinton appointed Richardson as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. As ambassador, he represented the United States in UN proceedings regarding the Palestinian National Authority and the State of Israel, the completion of negotiations that strengthened the role and mandate of the United Nations Environment Programme regarding ecologically sustainable development, as well as other duties of an ambassador to the UN. Richardson served there until 1998, when he was appointed U.S. Secretary of Energy, a post that he held for the remainder of the Clinton administration. According to his autobiography, Richardson was asked by the White House in 1997 to interview Monica Lewinsky for a job on his staff at the UN. Richardson did so, and offered her a position, which she declined.

U.S. Secretary of Energy

Richardson as Secretary of Energy

The Senate confirmed Richardson to be Clinton's Secretary of Energy on July 31, 1998. His tenure at the Department of Energy was marred by the Wen Ho Lee nuclear espionage scandal. Richardson was also criticized by the Senate for his handling of the espionage inquiry by not testifying in front of Congress sooner. Richardson justified his response by saying that he was waiting to uncover more information before speaking to Congress.

Richardson created the Director for Native American Affairs position in the Department in 1998, and in January 2000 oversaw the largest return of federal lands, 84,000 acres (340 km²) to an Indian Tribe (the Northern Ute Tribe of Utah) in more than 100 years. Richardson also directed the overhaul of the Department's consultation policy with Native American tribes and established the Tribal Energy Program.

Educational and corporate positions

With the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001, Richardson took on a number of different positions. He was an adjunct professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a lecturer at the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West. In 2000, Bill Richardson was awarded a United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellowship. He spent the next year researching and writing on the negotiations with North Korea and the energy dimensions of U.S. relations with same.

Richardson also joined Kissinger McLarty Associates, a "strategic advisory firm" headed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty, as Senior Managing Director. He also served on the corporate boards of several energy companies, including Valero Energy Corporation and Diamond Offshore Drilling. He withdrew from these boards after being nominated by the Democratic Party for governor of New Mexico, but retained considerable stock holdings in Valero and Diamond Offshore. He would later sell these stocks during his campaign for President in 2007, saying he was "getting questions" about the propriety of these holdings, especially given his past as energy secretary, and that it had become a "distraction".

Governor of New Mexico

Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico in November 2002, having defeated the Republican candidate, John Sanchez, 56-39 percent. He succeeded a two-term Republican governor, Gary E. Johnson. He took office in January 2003 as the only Hispanic Governor in the United States, other than then-Governor Sila María Calderón of Puerto Rico. In his first year, Richardson proposed "tax cuts to promote growth and investment" and passed a broad personal income tax cut and won a statewide special election to transfer money from the state's Permanent Fund to meet current expenses and projects. In early 2005, Richardson made New Mexico the first state in the nation to provide $400,000 in life insurance coverage for New Mexico National Guardsmen who serve on active duty. Thirty-five states have since followed suit.

Working with the legislature, he formed Governor Richardson's Investment Partnership (GRIP) in 2003. The partnership has been used to fund large-scale public infrastructure projects throughout New Mexico, including, through the use of highway funds, a brand new commuter rail line (the Railrunner) that runs between Belen, Albuquerque, and Bernalillo. He supported LGBT rights in his career as governor; he added sexual orientation and gender identity to New Mexico's list of civil rights categories. During the summer of 2003, he met with a delegation from North Korea at their request to discuss concerns over that country's use of nuclear energy. At the request of the White House, he also flew to North Korea in 2005, and met with another North Korean delegation in 2006. On December 7, 2006, Richardson was named as the "Special Envoy for Hemispheric Affairs" for the Secretary General of the Organization of American States with the mandate to "promote dialogue on issues of importance to the region, such as immigration and free trade".

He was named Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and announced a desire to increase the role of Democratic governors in deciding the future of their party.

In 2006, Forbes credited Richardson's reforms in naming Albuquerque, New Mexico the best city in the U.S. for business and careers. The Cato Institute, meanwhile, has consistently rated Richardson as one of the most fiscally responsible Democratic governors in the nation.

In December 2005, Richardson announced the intention of New Mexico to partner with billionaire Richard Branson to bring space tourism to the proposed Spaceport America located near Las Cruces, New Mexico.

In March 2006, Richardson vetoed eminent domain legislation in response to a surge of interest created by the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London to increase local governments' eminent domain power.

On September 7, 2006 Richardson flew to Sudan to meet Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and successfully negotiated the release of imprisoned journalist Paul Salopek. Salopek had been charged by the Sudanese with espionage on August 26th, 2006 while on a National Geographic assignment.

Richardson won his second term as Governor of New Mexico on November 7, 2006, 68-32 percent against former New Mexico Republican Party Chairman John Dendahl. Richardson received the highest percentage of votes than in any gubernatorial election in the state's history.

In December 2006, Richardson announced that he would support a ban on cockfighting in New Mexico. On March 12, 2007, Richardson signed into law a bill that would ban cockfighting in New Mexico. Puerto Rico is now the only part of the United States where cockfighting is legal.

In January 2007, at the request of the Save Darfur Coalition, he brokered a 60-day cease fire between al-Bashir and leaders of several rebel factions in Darfur, the western Sudanese region. The cease-fire never became effective, however, with allegations of breaches on all sides.

During New Mexico's most recent legislative session, Richardson signed a bill into law that made New Mexico the 12th state to legalize marijuana for medical reasons. When asked if this would hurt him in a Presidential election, he stated that it did not matter, as it was "the right thing to do."

Political views

Richardson is pro-choice, supports the death penalty, gun rights, affirmative action policies in government contracts and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. He also gave driver's licenses to illegal aliens and sought to give monetary help for college tuition to the children of illegal immigrants. Richardson opposes the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and does not believe homosexuals choose their orientation. He initially supported the war in Iraq but has now called for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the region by the end of 2007. Richardson has stressed that he would leave "zero troops" in Iraq. He also supports universal health care, but opposes a single-payer system. Richardson has called for completely scrapping the No Child Left Behind Act, and a "minimum wage" for teachers that would stand at $40,000 a year.

2008 presidential campaign

Template:Future election candidate In the 2000s, Richardson has frequently been the subject of rumors that he was on the short list of possible vice-presidential picks by Democratic nominees, including former Vice-President Al Gore in 2000 and Senator John Kerry in 2004.

In 2006, the Associated Press reported that Richardson informed party leaders that he intended to run in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In early December 2006 Fox News claimed that Richardson told them he would run for President, but Richardson said he would actually wait to decide in January 2007. On January 21, 2007, Richardson told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week that he was running for president, by virtue of the act of forming a presidential exploratory committee. Richardson joined a diverse field for the Democratic nomination, which already included Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. While Obama would be the first African American and Clinton would be the first woman, Richardson's own background would make him the first Hispanic to earn a major party's presidential nomination.

On March 4, 2007, while attending a campaign breakfast event in Des Moines, Iowa, Richardson said he believed that the Democratic contest will be decided very early — by the end of January 2008 after the first four state contests (Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina). "I believe the first four states, with Iowa and New Hampshire being the top ones, will determine who the president is. I always felt that way. What the pundits say about who's in, who's out, who's got the most money doesn't matter. I have a sustained plan to introduce myself to the voters ... and so far I feel very satisfied. I feel I can do very well."

The Bill Richardson for President Exploratory Committee raised $6.3 million in the first quarter of 2007. As of April 1, 2007, the campaign had $5 million cash on hand. This was the fifth highest amount raised among the eight candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination. As part of a diplomatic mission, Richardson traveled to North Korea in early April for meetings with government officials and successfully recovered the remains of six U.S. servicemen in that country. After this visit he was criticized by journalist Claudia Rosett for agreeing to a tour of the captured U.S. naval ship U.S.S. Pueblo; Richardson had said after the tour that it was “a lot of propaganda, but we’re guests here.”

Although already campaigning for months before, Governor Richardson formally announced his candidacy on May 21, 2007 in Los Angeles, saying, "The United States faces huge challenges, but also huge opportunities. I am running for President because these times call for a leader with a proven track record, and a demonstrated ability to bring people together to tackle our problems at home and abroad, I am that person, not because I say so, but because of what I have done, and what I can do for the American people."

Richardson campaigning in Elko, Nevada, July 2007

With the early departure of Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Richardson became the only candidate in the race for the Democratic nomination with executive experience, a characteristic that he believed would attract Iowa voters. After beginning the race with one percent in most national polls, he began rising to some degree, reaching five percent in three polls conducted in late February 2007, and in so doing, separating himself from other 'second tier' candidates. He was named the "candidate most likely to become a serious contender." Similarly, he began to rise in polls of the early primary and caucus states. A recent Iowa poll shows Richardson moving up to ten percent, eleven points behind Hillary Clinton, and a Nevada poll has Richardson with 6%. He also rose to ten percent in New Hampshire, only five points behind John Edwards.

By August 12, 2007, Richardson had $7 million of campaign funds on hand, placing him with the fourth highest amount.

Writings

Richardson has authored two books. An autobiography, Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life was published in March 2007 and Leading by Example: How We Can Inspire an Energy and Security Revolution was released in October 2007.

Electoral history

New Mexico Gubernatorial Election 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Richardson	256,561	56.3
	Republican	John Sanchez	177,739	39.1

New Mexico Gubernatorial Election 2006

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Bill Richardson (Incumbent)	384,260	68.8	+12.5
	Republican	John Dendahl	174,214	31.2

References

• Brooke, James (Dec 14, 1996). "Traveling Troubleshooter Is Ready to Settle Down, at the U.N.: THE SECOND TERM: The New Lineup William Blaine Richardson". The New York Times, pp. 11.
• Rankin, Adam (July 10, 2005). "Richardson Named As Likely Source of Wen Ho Lee Leak". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved on 2007-03-01.

External links

Official sites

• Bill Richardson for President official presidential campaign website
• Governor Bill Richardson's official website
• Governor Richardson's Investment Partnership (GRIP)
• Final Report of the Attorney General's Review Team on the Handling of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Investigation aka The Bellows Report, May 2000

Databases and topic pages

• About.com — Bill Richardson
• FEC — Bill Richardson campaign finance disclosure
• FollowTheMoney — Bill Richardson campaign contributions (Governor)
• OnTheIssues — Bill Richardson issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Bill Richardson campaign contributions (President)
• Project Vote Smart — Governor Bill Richardson (NM) includes bio, campaign finances, voting record, issue positions
• USAElectionPolls — Bill Richardson Poll Results summarized presidential election polls
• Template:Dmoz
• Genealogy of Bill Richardson
• Governor Richardson Answers Candidate Questions! Governor Richardson answers questions regarding disability issues
• Bill Richardson shares his ideas on clean energy, global warming and energy independence Set America Free Coalition presents "Primary Energy: '08" with 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Governor Bill Richardson

Media coverage

• "Richardson Enters the 2008 Race" ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos television interview, Jan 21, 2007
• "NM Governor Richardson Calls Special Legislative Session to Investigate Price Gouging and Energy Cost" Democracy Now!
• "Richardson's Run" Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics
• "Bill Richardson News" The New York Times news and commentary archive
• Richardson's comment that the Democratic race will be over in January 2008 after the first 4 state contests
• "Annals of Diplomacy Backfire" The New Yorker, Carl Nagin
• Vote 2008: Bill Richardson, The Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
• "The Richardson File" The Santa Fe New Mexican comprehensive news and archive index
• "See Bill Run" Santa Fe Reporter news archive
• "Richardson walks fine line on Immigration" CNN.

Unofficial supporter sites

• The Bill Richardson Blog (unofficial)
• America for Richardson (unofficial)
• North Dakota for Bill Richardson (unofficial)
• Washington for Richardson (unofficial)
• South Carolina for Richardson (unofficial)
• Western Democrat Blog: The Case for Bill Richardson

2006 New Mexico gubernatorial campaign

• Governor Richardson's Campaign website
  • Governor Richardson's Campaign blog — "The Plaza"

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