Bill Richardson

Governor of New Mexico

• Born: November 15, 1947
• Place of Birth: Pasadena, California
• Died: September 1, 2023
• Place of Death: Chatham, Massachusetts

AMERICAN POLITICIAN

Richardson made his mark as a legislator, diplomat, and state executive. He served more than fourteen years in the United States House of Representatives, a year as ambassador to the United Nations, two years as secretary of the Department of Energy, and eight as governor of New Mexico. He also remained active in humanitarian work until his death in 2023.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT: Government and politics; diplomacy; social issues

Early Life

The childhood of William Blaine Richardson III depended on the employment of his father, William II, a manager of the Mexico City branch of an important American bank who was married to a Mexican woman, Maria Luisa Lopez-Collada. Before Richardson’s birth in 1947, his father—who had been born on a boat heading to Nicaragua and thus had been questioned about his own citizenship—moved his wife to Pasadena, California, so there would be no question of the child’s American citizenship. Immediately after giving birth, Maria Luisa returned to Mexico with her young son.

Richardson grew up in Mexico City, as did his younger sister, Vesta. His father was a strict disciplinarian and always insisted that he work and study to full capacity; Richardson came to appreciate his mother as a “mediator” between her husband and the children. Until the age of thirteen, he attended school in Mexico, and he became fluent in Spanish.

Richardson showed great talent as a baseball player. In 1960, he was sent to Concord, Massachusetts, to attend the Middlesex School. There he had some difficulties, partly because he was not as proficient in English as he was in Spanish, but also because he was not an outstanding student. As an athlete, however, he was much appreciated. At the age of eighteen, he met a Concord native named Barbara Flavin, and they quickly became inseparable. Again starring as a baseball pitcher, he considered a professional career, but his father insisted that he attend college.

Richardson enrolled in Tufts University in 1966. After his graduation, he earned a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. Hearing Hubert Humphrey, the former vice president, speak about public service on a school trip to Washington convinced Richardson of the type of career that he should enter. Upon completion of his studies, he joined the staff of Frank Bradford Morse, a Republican congressman from Massachusetts. In 1972, his father, who had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, died a few days before Richardson’s wedding to Barbara Flavin, but his mother encouraged them to keep the date, and his father was memorialized in English and Spanish at the wedding.

Life’s Work

Richardson did research and wrote summaries for Morse during his time on the congressman’s staff. In a later assignment with the Department of State, his work on human rights issues convinced him that he should become a Democrat. After serving on the staff of a Senate foreign relations subcommittee from 1975 to 1978, he and his wife moved to Santa Fe, where he became executive director of the Democratic Party in New Mexico. He ran for a House of Representatives seat in the state’s First District in 1980 but was defeated by his Republican opponent. Two years later, he was elected to represent the state’s new Third District.

Richardson was reelected seven times and was appointed to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Later, he served on the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee and the Select Intelligence Committee. He introduced many measures to assist the large Latino and Native American communities in his state, but his habit of adding amendments to bills often displeased his colleagues. He developed a strong relationship with President Bill Clinton in the 1990’s and was rewarded with a number of international assignments. He negotiated the return of an American pilot captured in North Korea, Red Cross workers imprisoned in Sudan, and American contractors held by dictator Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In 1997, Clinton named Richardson ambassador to the United Nations, a position in which he felt hampered by the nation’s refusal to pay its dues and by its policy of keeping to a minimum his opportunities to employ veto power. He traveled to Afghanistan, met with Taliban officials and those of the Northern Alliance, who were engaged in a civil war, and attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate a ceasefire.

In his next position, secretary of energy from 1998 to 2000, Richardson fired Wen Ho Lee, a scientist working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, for suspected espionage. When Lee was cleared of all but one relatively minor charge against him, Richardson was the target of harsh criticism. Despite successes such as his efforts to contain nuclear proliferation, the Lee affair contributed to Al Gore’s decision not to consider him as a vice presidential candidate at the time of Gore’s presidential candidacy.

In 2002, Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico. At the time, he was the only Latino sitting governor in the United States. Although some of the bills he signed were controversial—including one that allowed illegal immigrants to obtain drivers’ licenses and others that legalized medicinal marijuana and banned the death penalty in the state—he was a popular governor. In 2006, he received the highest percentage of votes of any gubernatorial candidate in the history of his state. Recognized by his peers, he served as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

New Mexico’s constitution did not allow Richardson a third term. During his second term as governor, he launched an unsuccessful attempt to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2008 and ultimately endorsed Barack Obama. Richardson declined President Obama’s nomination to the position of secretary of commerce in early 2009 amid charges that he had exercised favoritism toward a company and a federal investigation into possible campaign finance misconduct; no indictment was made, however.

After returning to civilian life in 2011, Richardson turned to philanthropic endeavors. He founded the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, which engaged in citizen diplomacy, consulting, cultural exchange, and prisoner and hostage negotiations. The nongovernmental organization particularly focused its efforts on Myanmar, Cuba, and North Korea. It also sought to end the poaching of endangered wildlife in various countries. In 2013 Richardson and actor Robert Redford cofounded the nonprofit Foundation to Preserve New Mexico Wildlife in order to protect wild horses.

Over the years, Richardson also wrote several books, including the policy-oriented Leading by Example: How We Can Inspire an Energy and Security Revolution (2007) and two memoirs/how-to books on negotiation, Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life (2007) and How to Sweet-Talk a Shark: Strategies and Stories from a Master Negotiator (2013).

Richardson remained active in philanthropic work throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s and earned recognition for his efforts to secure the release of Americans imprisoned or detained abroad. While he was unable to secure the release of American student Otto Warmbier from North Korean custody before Warmbier's death 2017, in 2021 Richardson helped convince the military government of Myanmar to release American journalist Danny Fenster, who had been sentenced to eleven years in prison. Richardson also earned recognition for his involvement in efforts to free Brittney Griner, a professional basketball player detained by Russia in February 2022 and released in a prisoner swap in December 2022.

Richardson died in Chatham, Massachusetts, on September 1, 2023, at the age of seventy-five. He was eulogized at his funeral by former President Clinton, under whose administration Richardson served as ambassador and energy secretary.

Significance

Richardson demonstrated remarkable energy and enthusiasm for his work but also provoked strong opposition on several occasions. He won reelection easily as a congressman and governor and, as governor, named many people of Latino and Native American descent to significant positions in his administration. His interest in foreign policy and tough-minded diplomatic skills served his country in negotiations with foreign powers and earned him several nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Convinced that his multicultural background helped him understand people of other cultures, he helped raise the visibility of Latinos in US politics. His humanitarian work after leaving politics, particularly his dedicated work in the field of hostage diplomacy, also earned wide praise. At the same time, his personal business dealings during his time in elected office attracted scrutiny and generated controversy.

Bibliography

"Biography." Bill Richardson. Bill Richardson, 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.

Blumenthal, Ralph, and Dan Frosch. “Richardson Is Running on a Résumé Both Local and National.” The New York Times, February 23, 2007.

Carbajal, Frank, and Humberto Medina. Building the Latino Future: Success Stories for the Next Generation. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

Lacey, Marc, and Dan Frosch. "Ex-Governor Is Said to Be Focal Point of Inquiry." New York Times. New York Times, 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.

Lee, Morgan. "Bill Clinton Remembers Bill Richardson as Skilled, Informal US diplomat: ‘The bad guys liked him’". Associated Press, 14 Sept. 2023, apnews.com/article/bill-richardson-funeral-mass-sante-fe-9110b06165f0ad58f6aa6e9c062fba05. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Richardson, Bill. “A Presidential Candidate’s View: Intelligence for the 21st Century.” SAIS Review 28, no. 1 (Winter/Spring 2008): 145-146.

Richardson, Bill, and Michael Ruby. Between Worlds: The Making of an American Life. New York: G. B. Putnam’s Sons, 2005.

Roberts, Sam. "Bill Richardson, Champion of Americans Held Overseas, Dies at 75." The New York Times, 2 Sep. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/09/02/us/politics/bill-richardson-dead.html. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.