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Revision as of 12:11, 10 April 2006 by Silverback (talk | contribs) (→External links: adding Rio Grande Foundation site, with its spend-o-meter)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Bill Richardson | |
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| File:B Richardson.jpg | |
| 30 Governor of New Mexico | |
| In office January 2003 – present | |
| Lieutenant | Diane Denish |
| Preceded by | Gary E. Johnson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 15, 1947 Pasadena, California |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Barbara Richardson |
| Profession | Politician |
William Blaine "Bill" Richardson (born November 15, 1947) is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party. He has served as a Congressman, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and U.S. Secretary of Energy; he is presently the Governor of New Mexico. He was also chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention that nominated John Kerry for the presidency.
Early life and career
Richardson was born in Pasadena, California. His mother, Maria Luisa Lopez-Collada, was Mexican. His father, born in Nicaragua, was a native of Boston who worked for Citibank as an executive in Mexico. He was raised in Mexico City, but as a teenager attended a Boston-area high school. Richardson played baseball in high school at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts and was a good pitcher. Richardson went on to play for Tufts University. Richardson was scouted by a number of teams, including the Kansas City Athletics. Richardson said for 40 years that he was drafted by the Athletics, but in 2005 it was revealed that he was never actually drafted by any major league team. Later arm trouble prevented a major league career, however, and he wanted to finish college anyway.
At Tufts, he majored in French and political science, and was a brother of Delta Tau Delta. He then added a master's degree from Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He met his wife, Barbara Flavin, in Boston.
After college, he 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, losing to longtime 1st District congressman and former Department of Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan. Four 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, never facing a truly serious opponent 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 the Sudan to represent U.S. interests. In 1995, he travelled 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.
In 1997, Clinton appointed him as U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations. He served there until 1998, when he was appointed as U.S. Secretary of Energy. He served there for the remainder of the Clinton administration. In July 2005, Richardson was implicated in the Wen Ho Lee scandal; it was alleged by a Federal judge that Richardson leaked Lee's name to reporters months before the scientist was charged with any crime.
Governor of New Mexico
Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico in November 2002, defeating the Republican candidate, John Sanchez by 17 percentage points (56%-39%). He succeeded a two-term Republican governor, Gary Johnson. He took office in January 2003 as the only Hispanic Governor in the United States. Early in his first term, it is said he has pressed energetically in a hundred directions at the same time. 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 reality, his well-publicized cuts to specific taxes (e.g. elimination of gross receipts tax on food) were more than offset by increases in other taxes and fees, resulting in a net tax increase to New Mexico residents of some $178 million. 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.
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 infrastucture improvements throughout New Mexico, including, through the use of highway funds, a brand new commuter rail line (the Railrunner) that will eventually run between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
Even as governor, Richardson continues to be 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.
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 Southwest Regional Space Port located near Las Cruces, New Mexico. In conjunction with the Ansari X Prize Cup, this partnership puts New Mexico firmly at the spearhead of the next generation of space advancement.
On January 2, 2006, Richardson rode on the New Mexico float in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.
Governor Richardson of New Mexico became the first governor to veto eminent domain reform legislation resulting from the recent surge in public interest.
Future political career
In recent years, Richardson has frequently been the subject of rumors that he was on the short list of possible vice-presidential picks by Democratic nominees, including John Kerry and Al Gore.
In 2005, the Associated Press reported that Richardson has informed party leaders that he intends to run in the 2008 U.S. presidential election .
References
- Traveling Troubleshooter Is Ready to Settle Down, at the U.N.:THE SECOND TERM: The New Lineup William Blaine Richardson, James Brooke, New York Times, 14 December 1996. pg. 11, 1 pgs
- Richardson Named As Likely Source of Wen Ho Lee Leak, By Adam Rankin, Albuquerque Journal (Sunday, July 10 2005)
External links
- Governor Bill Richardson's official website
- Governor Richardson's Campaign website
- Richardson's Campaign Contributions
- Annals of Diplomacy Backfire, Carl Nagin, The New Yorker
- Final Report of the Attorney General's Review Team on the Handling of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Investigation ("The Bellows Report") (May 2000)
- A blog dedicated to Bill Richardson and his run for the presidency in 2008
- An online community of Richardson supporters
- About.com Profile of Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico
- Western Democrat: The Case for Bill Richardson
- Alternet: Talking with Gov. Bill Richardson
- NM Governor Richardson Calls Special Legislative Session to Investigate Price Gouging and Energy Cost
- Rio Grande Foundation A public policy education foundation that has research and a spend-o-meter on the state of New Mexico.
| Preceded byMadeleine Albright | United States Ambassador to the United Nations 1997-1998 |
Succeeded byRichard Holbrooke |
| Preceded byFederico Peña | United States Secretary of Energy 1998-2001 |
Succeeded bySpencer Abraham |
| Governors of New Mexico | ||
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| U.S. Military Admin (1846–1851) |  | |
| U.S. Territory (1851–1912) | ||
| State (since 1912) | ||
| See also Mexican governors of New Mexico, Spanish governors of New Mexico | ||
| United States secretaries of energy | ||
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