Bill Richardson

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

Bill Richardson
Governor Bill Richardson in Kensington, New Hampshire, 2006
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
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Federico Peña
Succeeded by	Spencer Abraham
21st United States Ambassador to the United Nations
In office February 13, 1997 – August 18, 1998
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Madeleine Albright
Succeeded by	Richard Holbrooke
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico's 3rd 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
Residence	Santa Fe, New Mexico
Alma mater	Tufts University
Occupation	Diplomat, Business Consultant
Website	Welcome to the New Mexico Office of the Governor, Bill Richardson

William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is the 30th and current Governor of New Mexico. Before being elected governor, Richardson served in the Clinton administration as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary. Richardson has also served as a U.S. Congressman, chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. On December 3, 2008, then-President-elect Barack Obama designated Richardson for appointment to the cabinet-level position of Commerce Secretary. On January 4, 2009, Richardson announced his decision to withdraw his nomination because of an investigation into improper business dealings in New Mexico. In August 2009, federal prosecutors dropped the pending investigation against the governor, and there has been speculation in the media about Richardson's career, after his second and final term as New Mexico governor concludes.

Early life and education

Bill Richardson was born in Pasadena, Los Angeles, California . His father, William Blaine Richardson Jr. (died in 1972) of New England Yankee and Mexican descent, was an American Citibank executive who grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and lived and worked in Mexico City. His mother, María Luisa López-Collada Márquez is the Mexican daughter of a Spanish father from Villaviciosa, Asturias, Spain and a Mexican mother and was his father's secretary. Richardson's father was born in Nicaragua. Just before Richardson was born, his father sent his mother to California to give birth because, as Richardson explained, "My father had a complex about not having been born in the United States." Richardson, a U.S. citizen by birthright, was raised during his childhood in Mexico City. At age 13, Richardson's parents sent him to Massachusetts to attend a preparatory school, Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he played baseball as a pitcher. He entered Tufts University in 1966 where he continued to play baseball.

Richardson's original biographies stated that he had been drafted by the Kansas City Athletics and the Chicago Cubs to play professional baseball, but a 2005 Albuquerque Journal investigation revealed that he never was on any official draft. Richardson acknowledged the error which he claimed was unintentional, saying that he had been scouted by several teams and told that he "would or could" be drafted, but was mistaken in saying that he was actually drafted.

In 1967, he pitched in the amateur Cape Cod Baseball League for the Cotuit Kettleers in Cotuit, Massachusetts. A Kettleers program included the words "Drafted by K.C." The information which, according to the investigation, was generally provided by the players or their college coaches. Richardson said:

When I saw that program in 1967, I was convinced I was drafted...And it stayed with me all these years.

He earned a Bachelor's degree at Tufts in 1970, majoring in French and political science and became a president and brother of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He went on to earn a master's degree in international affairs from Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971. While still in high school, he met his future wife, Barbara Flavin. They married in 1972 and have no children.

Early political career

After college, Richardson worked for Republican Congressman F. Bradford Morse from Massachusetts. He was later a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Richardson worked on congressional relations for the Henry Kissinger State Department during the Nixon Administration.

U.S. Congressman

Bill Richardson as a congressman

In 1978, Richardson moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and ran for Congress in 1980 as a Democrat, 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. Richardson spent a little more than 14 years in Congress, during which time he represented the country's most diverse district and held 2,000 town meetings.

Richardson served as Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the 98th Congress (1983–1985) and 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, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act Amendments, the Indian Dams Safety Act, the Tribal Self-Governance Act, and the Jicarilla Apache Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act.

Bill Richardson (center), as the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, circa 1984.

He became a member of the Democratic leadership as a deputy majority whip, where he befriended Bill Clinton after they worked closely on several issues, including serving as the ranking House Democrat in favor of NAFTA's passage in 1993 [1]. Clinton in turn sent Richardson on various foreign policy missions, including a trip in 1996 in which Richardson 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. Richardson also visited Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, India, North Korea, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Sudan to represent U.S. interests and met with Slobodan Milosevic. In 1996, he played a major role in securing the release of American Evan Hunziker from North Korean custody and for securing a pardon for Eliadah McCord, an American convicted and imprisoned in Bangladesh. Due to these missions, Richardson was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times.

As U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations between 1997 and 1998, Richardson flew to Afghanistan and met with the Taliban and with Abdul Rachid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord, but the ceasefire he believed he had negotiated with the help of Bruce Riedel of the National Security Council failed to hold.

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 publicly named Lee, an employee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, as a suspect who might have given nuclear secrets to the Chinese government. Lee was later cleared of espionage charges and won a settlement against the federal government for the accusation. Richardson was also criticized by the Senate for his handling of the espionage inquiry, which involved missing hard drives with sensitive data, 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. Republican Senators called for Richardson's resignation while both parties criticized his role in the incident, and the scandal ended Richardson's hope of being named as Al Gore's running mate for the 2000 presidential election.

Richardson tightened security following the scandal, and became the first Energy Secretary to implement a plan to dispose of nuclear waste. He 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

Richardson as UN Ambassador

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.

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. From February 2001 to June 2002, he served on the board of directors of Peregrine Systems, Inc. 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

At a 2008 campaign event in Londonderry, New Hampshire

Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico in November 2002, having defeated the Republican candidate, John Sanchez, 56–39%. During the campaign, he set a Guinness World Record for most handshakes in eight hours by a politician, breaking Theodore Roosevelt's record. He succeeded a two-term Republican governor, Gary E. Johnson. He took office in January 2003 as one of two Hispanic Governors in the United States, the other being 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 helped make New Mexico the first state in the nation to provide $400,000 in life insurance coverage for New Mexico National Guard members 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 the use of highway fund to construct a brand new commuter rail line (the Rail Runner) that runs between Belen, Albuquerque, and Bernalillo. He supported a variety LGBT rights in his career as governor; he added sexual orientation and gender identity to New Mexico's list of civil rights categories. He however was opposed to same sex marriage and faced criticism for his use of an anti-gay slur on the Don Imus Show. During the summer of 2003, he met with a delegation from North Korea at their request to discuss concerns over that country's nuclear weapons. 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."

In 2003, Richardson backed and signed legislation creating a permit system for New Mexicans to carry concealed handguns. He applied for and received a concealed weapons permit, though by his own admission he seldom carries a gun.

As Richardson discussed frequently during his 2008 run for President, he supported a controversial New Mexico law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses for reasons of public safety. He said that because of the program, traffic fatalities had gone down, and the percentage of uninsured drivers decreased 33% to 11%.

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 December 2005, Richardson announced the intention of New Mexico to collaborate with billionaire Richard Branson to bring space tourism to the proposed Spaceport America located near Las Cruces, New Mexico. 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 March 2006, Richardson vetoed legislation that would ban the use of eminent domain to transfer property to private developers, as allowed by the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London. He promised to work with the legislature to draft new legislation addressing the issue in the 2007 legislative session.

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. The Sudanese had charged Salopek with espionage on August 26, 2006, while on a National Geographic assignment. 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.

Richardson won his second term as Governor of New Mexico on November 7, 2006, 68–32% against former New Mexico Republican Party Chairman John Dendahl. Richardson received the highest percentage of votes 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 banned cockfighting in New Mexico. Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are now the only parts of the United States where cockfighting is legal.

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."

Richardson's current term in office ends in 2011 and he is term-limited from a third term as governor.

During 2008 and 2009, Richardson faced "possible legal issues" while a federal grand jury investigates for possible pay to play violations in the awarding of a lucrative state contract to a company that gave campaign contributions to Richardson's political action committee, Moving America Forward. The company in question, CDR, was alleged to have "funneled" more than $100,000 in donations to Richardson's PAC in exchange for state construction projects. Richardson said when he withdraw his Commerce Secretary nomination that he was innocent; his popularity then slipped below 50% in his home state. In August 2009, federal prosecutors dropped the pending investigation against the governor, and there has been speculation in the media about Richardson's career after his third term as New Mexico governor concludes.

On March 18, 2009, Governor Richardson's office confirmed that he had signed a bill repealing the death penalty, making New Mexico the second U.S. state (after New Jersey) to repeal the death penalty by legislative means since the 1960s. Richardson was subsequently honored with the 2009 Human Rights Award by Death Penalty Focus.

2008 presidential campaign

Main article: Bill Richardson presidential campaign, 2008

See also: Democratic Party (United States) vice presidential candidates, 2008

Richardson campaigning in Elko, Nevada; July 2007

Richardson speaks during the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

Richardson was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election but dropped out on January 10, 2008 after lackluster showings in the first primary and caucus contests. Despite his long history and friendship with the Clinton family, Richardson endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination on March 21, 2008. Commentator and Clinton ally James Carville famously compared Richardson to Judas Iscariot for the move. Richardson responded in a Washington Post article, feeling "compelled to defend [himself] against character assassination and baseless allegations."

Richardson was a rumored Vice Presidential candidate for Senator and Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama and was fully vetted by the Obama campaign, before Obama chose Joe Biden on August 23, 2008.

Secretary of Commerce nomination

See also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet

Following Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election, Richardson's name was frequently mentioned as a possible Cabinet appointment in the incoming Obama administration. Most of this speculation surrounded the position of Secretary of State, given Richardson's background as a diplomat. Richardson did not publicly comment on the speculation.

It was widely reported, and eventually officially announced, that Hillary Clinton was Obama's nominee for Secretary of State. Around this time, it was reported that Richardson was being strongly considered for the position of Commerce Secretary. On December 3, 2008, Obama tapped Richardson for the post.

On January 4, 2009, Richardson withdrew his name as Commerce Secretary nominee because of the federal grand jury investigation into pay-to-play dealings. The New York Times had reported in late December that the grand jury investigation issue would be raised at Richardson's confirmation hearings.

Books authored

Richardson is credited with having written two books:

• Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life autobiography, published March 2007 - Ghost Writer, Mike Ruby, former co-editor of U.S. News & World Report, Missouri School of Journalism alumnus.
• Leading by Example: How We Can Inspire an Energy and Security Revolution released October 2007

See also

• Electoral history of Bill Richardson

Further sources

• Brooke, James (December 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

• "Office of the Governor of New Mexico".
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart

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