2008 Presidential Election Coverage

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Bill Richardson

William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is an American politician, and the current Governor of New Mexico. On January 21, 2007 in an appearance of This Week with George Stephanopolous, Richardson announced that he would be running for president in 2008, although technically his campaign is still in the exploratory phase. He has previously served as a U.S. Representative, Ambassador to the United Nations, and as the U.S. Secretary of Energy.[1] 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 America's governorships.

Bill Richardson was born in Pasadena, California. His mother, Maria Luisa Lopez-Collada, is Mexican. His father is William Blaine Richardson Jr., the son of Boston-born naturalist William Blaney Richardson (whose middle name changed from Blaney to Blaine when they moved to Nicaragua) and his Mexican wife Rosaura Ojeda. The elder William and Rosaura moved to Matagalpa, Nicaragua, in the 1890s, where he did research for Smithsonian Institution as naturalist; some of his findings were published in the Boston Globe newspaper up to 1927. William Jr. was born in Nicaragua in 1891; his brothers and sisters, 10 in total, were also born in Nicaragua. After his mother´s death in 1907, William Jr. and his two younger sisters were taken by his grandmother, Vesta, from Nicaragua to Boston where they grew up and studied. William Jr. worked for Citibank as an executive in Mexico City where he met Maria Luisa Lopez-Collada. William took Maria Luisa to deliver her children Bill and Vesta to Pasadena (where his sister Rosa Natalie lived) in 1947. Earlier generations (prior to the first William Blaine) in the Richardson line were Massachusetts commercial merchants, such as a wharfinger.

Bill Richardson was raised in Mexico City, but his parents took him to Massachusetts at age 13 to attend a Boston-area preparatory school. Richardson played baseball in high school at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, and was a pitcher. Richardson went on to play for Tufts University.

For much of Richardson's career, campaign material and supporters mentioned his baseball career and 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 prevented him from further pursuing a professional career in baseball.

At Tufts, he majored in French language 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 have been married for 33 years.

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.

Richardson spent a little more than 14 years in Congress; after winning his first election, he never faced a truly close election in the heavily Democratic 3rd District. 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 also took up the cause of Native Americans while serving in the House of Representatives. 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 some of the most prominent Native American bills that were signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Those bills include 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.

This was one of several times that Richardson went overseas during the Clinton years to negotiate the release of American prisoners. He was also successful in this task in Sudan and North Korea.

In 1997, Clinton appointed Richardson as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. As ambassador, he represented the United States in UN proceedings regarding Palestine 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, leading the U.S. Department of Energy 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.

The Senate confirmed Richardson to be President 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. In July 2005, a Federal judge was rumored to have said that Richardson might have leaked Lee's name to reporters months before the scientist was charged with any crime. Richardson was also sharply criticized by the Senate for his handling of the espionage inquiry. During Senate questioning, Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat-West Virginia) scolded Richardson, stating: "You've... shown a contempt of Congress that borders on a supreme arrogance... You will never again receive the support of the Senate of the United States for any office to which you might be appointed."

Richardson continued to devote his attention to Native Americans while at the Department, creating the first ever Director for Native American Affairs position in the Department in 1998 and overseeing the largest return of federal lands (84,000 acres) to an Indian Tribe (the Northern Ute Tribe of Utah) in more than 100 years in January of 2000. Richardson also directed the overhaul of the Department's consultation policy with Native American tribes and he established the Tribal Energy Program.

With the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001, Richardson commenced teaching at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He 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.

Also from 2001 to 2002, he was a lecturer at the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West, a residential high school with students from 90 countries.

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. 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, the governor formed Governor Richardson's Investment Partnership (GRIP) in 2003. The partnership has been used to fund large scale public infrastructure improvements 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.

Richardson has been lauded by traditionally right or libertarian-leaning publications and organizations such as Forbes Magazine and the Cato Institute for reforming New Mexico's economy. In 2006, Forbes credited Richardson's reforms in naming Albuquerque, New Mexico the best city in the U.S. for business and careers. Cato has consistently rated Richardson as one of the most fiscally responsible Democratic governors in the nation.

Richardson has remained very interested in foreign policy. 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 December 2005, Richardson announced the intention of the State of New Mexico to partner with billionaire Richard Branson to bring the promising business of 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 to increase local governments' eminent domain power.[11]

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. The outcome made Richardson the most successful governor at the ballot box in New Mexico's history.

In December 2006, Governor 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. Louisiana is now the only state where cockfighting is legal in the United States.

In January 2007, at the request of the Save Darfur Coalition, he brokered a 60-day cease fire between President 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."

Bill Richardson has been nominated four times for the Nobel Peace Prize (in 1995, 1997, 2000, and 2001) for negotiating the release of hostages, American servicemen, and political prisoners in North Korea, Iraq, and Cuba.

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