2023-09-02 16:48:00
“He lived his entire life in the service of others, including his time in government and his subsequent career helping to free people taken hostage or wrongfully detained abroad. There was no person Governor Richardson wouldn’t talk to if it meant promising to restore someone’s freedom,” Mickey Bergman, vice president of the Richardson Center, said in a statement.
“The world has lost an advocate for those wrongfully held abroad and I have lost a mentor and a dear friend,” he added.
According to the statement, Richardson died in his sleep at his home in Chatham, Massachusetts.
Bill Richardson.
Credit: Seth Wenig/AP
Bill Richardson, a race dedicated to freeing people abroad
Before being elected governor of New Mexico in 2002, Richardson was UN ambassador and energy secretary under President Bill Clinton and served 14 years as a congressman representing northern New Mexico.
He traveled the world as an unofficial diplomatic troubleshooter, negotiating the release of US military and hostages from North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan. He has met to negotiate such exchanges with major US adversaries, including Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It was a job he was passionate about, and he once described himself as “the informal undersecretary for thugs.”
Armed with a golden resume and extensive experience in internal and external affairs, Richardson ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008 hoping to become the country’s first Hispanic president. He dropped out of the race after finishing fourth in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
Richardson continued his independent diplomacy even while serving as governor. He had just started his first term as governor when he met with two North Korean envoys in Santa Fe. He traveled to North Korea in 2007 to recover the remains of US servicemen killed in the Korean War. In 2006, he persuaded Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to release Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Paul Salopek.
“This is the dark part of diplomacy”: this is how the US achieved the release of Brittney Griner from Russia
Bill Richardson as Governor of New Mexico
Richardson was the only governor of Hispanic roots in the country during his two terms. He described being governor as “the best job I’ve ever had.” “It’s the most fun. You can get the most out of it. You set the agenda,” he said then.
As governor, Richardson signed legislation in 2009 that repealed the death penalty. He called it “the most difficult decision of my political life” because he had previously supported capital punishment.
Other achievements as governor included minimum wages of $50,000 a year for the most qualified teachers in New Mexico, an increase in the state minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.50 an hour, preschool programs for 4-year-olds, renewable energy requirements for utilities and funding for major infrastructure projects, including a commercial spaceport in southern New Mexico and a $400 million commuter rail system.
Richardson transformed the political landscape in New Mexico. He raised and spent record amounts on his campaigns. He brought Washington-style politics to a sleepy western state with a part-time Legislature.
Controversial moments in Bill Richardson’s career
Lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, complained that Richardson went so far as to threaten retaliation against opponents. Democratic state Sen. Tim Jennings of Roswell once said Richardson was “hitting people over the head” in his dealings with lobbyists on a health care issue, but he dismissed criticism of his management style.
“It is true that I am aggressive. I use the governorship pulpit,” Richardson said. “But I do not threaten retaliation. They say that I am a vengeful person. I just don’t think so.”
Longtime friends and supporters attributed Richardson’s success in part to his relentlessness. Bob Gallagher, who headed the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said that if Richardson wanted something done then “expect him to have a shotgun down the hall. Or a drumstick.”
After dropping out of the 2008 presidential race, Richardson endorsed Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton, despite his longstanding friendship with the Clintons.
Obama later appointed him Commerce Secretary, but Richardson withdrew in early 2009 due to a federal investigation into an alleged pay-as-you-go plan involving his administration in New Mexico.
Months later, the federal investigation ended without charges against Richardson and his former top aides. Richardson had a troubled tenure as energy secretary because of a scandal over the disappearance of computer equipment containing nuclear weapons secrets at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the government’s investigation and prosecution of former nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee.
Former US ambassador meets with Maduro to negotiate the release of CITGO executives
1693684051
#Bill #Richardson #Governor #Mexico #Prominent #Democrat #Hispanic #Roots #Dies