Dueling Presidential Candidate Resumes

[bigtree]

here's my choice:

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico was elected in 2002 and reelected in 2006. On January 21, 2007, Richardson entered the 2008 race for the White House. He was chair of the Democratic 2004 Convention.

Richardson was a Congressman for 7 terms, from 1983-97, served as UN Ambassador from 1997-98 and was US Secretary of Energy under Bill Clinton from 1998-01. Richardson is the nation's only Hispanic governor.

Personal Data: Birth - November 15, 1947 in Pasadena, California

Education - BA in Political Science from Tufts University in 1970; MA in International Relations from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971

Family - Married, no children

Faith - Roman Catholic

He attended school in Mexico City, and in 1966 he graduated from Middlesex School, in Concord, Massachusetts. He studied at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he earned a B.A. degree (1970) and received an M.A. (1971) from its Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

After graduation, Richardson worked for the State Department on congressional relations, then completed a 3-year stint during 1971 to 1978 as an aide to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He moved to Santa Fe in 1978, where he lost his first run for Congress. He won a seat on his second attempt, and served for 14 years.

In Congress, his avid interest in foreign relations resulted in travel on US business to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Peru, Iraq, North Korea, India, Nigeria and the Sudan. http://usliberals.about.com/od/stategovernors/p/GovRichardson.htm


Richardson, 55, is a 6-foot-2, 228-pound force of political nature . . .

Richardson was born in California, the son of a Boston banker. He spent his childhood in Mexico City (where his mother still resides), attended prep school in Concord, Mass. (where he met his wife, Barbara) and went to college and graduate school at Tufts.

In Congress, Richardson focused heavily on foreign policy and undertook a series of diplomacy missions at the behest of the Clinton administration to Sudan, Iraq, Haiti and North Korea, among other places. He became U.N. ambassador in 1997 and energy secretary in 1998. After a teaching stint at Harvard, Richardson returned to New Mexico, where he vowed to shake at least 600 hands a day in his campaign for governor last year. On Sept. 16, 2002, he shattered Teddy Roosevelt's 94-year-old record of 8,513 handshakes in an eight-hour period. On Election Day, he defeated Republican John Sanchez by 16 percentage points.

Even in the job of governor, Richardson's varied résumé lands him in an eclectic set of spotlights. After last month's blackout, Richardson became a national TV fixture for several days. In January, North Korean emissaries called. Richardson, who had negotiated the release of an American pilot from North Korea in 1994, held talks with two North Korean diplomats at the governor's mansion, conferring regularly with Colin Powell. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A6996-2003Sep13?language=printer


In 1980 Richardson unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Congressman Manuel Luján. Following the creation of northern New Mexico's Third District, Richardson won the 1982 election with sixty-seven percent of the vote. He ran a successful campaign visiting small towns and pueblos, and was elected by a primarily Hispanic and Native American constituency. He has subsequently been reelected with large margins, averaging seventy percent of the vote.

During his first term in Congress, Richardson won a coveted seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is of particular importance to New Mexico. He balanced his agenda between the interest of environmentalists and important oil, gas, and uranium industries in his state.

In the 101st Congress, Richardson supported a plan to promote the use of non-gasoline cars, parts of which were included in the Clean Air Act re-authorization. As a member of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, he has supported expansion of national parks and the designation of wild and scenic rivers.

By the 103rd Congress, Richardson had risen to the position of Chief Deputy Whip and led the fight in the House for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He wrote articles advocating NAFTA for important national newspapers and encouraged President Clinton to work with Mexico on improving the environmental portions of the agreement in order to gain support for NAFTA in Congress. Richardson also played a key role in passing President Clinton's 1993 Deficit Reduction package and the 1994 Crime Bill. In addition to his seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Richardson was the second-ranking Democrat on the Select Intelligence Committee and served on the Natural Resources Committee, where he chaired the Native American Affairs Subcommittee which was created in the 103rd Congress.

In late 1994, Richardson travelled to North Korea to discuss a nuclear agreement. He arrived the same day a U.S. helicopter was shot down by the North Koreans and thereby was thrust into the position of negotiating for the release of two U.S. pilots. After five days of tense talks, Richardson left North Korea with the remains of one pilot and a promise that the surviving pilot would be released "very soon." He returned home the following week.

Richardson's highly successful, but unexpected, foray into North Korea was actually his third high profile foreign affairs experience in 1994. In July, he laid the groundwork for a peaceful resolution to the growing Haitian crisis when he held a five and a half hour meeting with Haitian leader General Raoul Cedras in Haiti. In February, Richardson travelled to Burma to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate, and leader of the persecuted democracy movement, and then convinced military leaders to open talks about her release. Richardson was the first non-family member allowed to visit the dissident in her more than five years under house arrest. http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/richardson.html


In other high-level diplomatic negotiations around the globe, Richardson says he often sensed that, across the table, "they liked the fact that I was a minority and that I could relate to another culture,” he says. "It gave me an advantage because they thought, ‘He's an American, but he's got other cultures and we think he's able to relate better to us.'”

But he stresses that he is an American first, albeit one who cherishes his Hispanic heritage. "I don't want to be known as a professional Hispanic, that everything I do is because I'm Hispanic or I only serve Hispanics,” says Richardson, who says he dreams in English but reverts to dreaming in Spanish after periodic vacations in Mexico. "I serve a broad constituency: Native Americans, Anglos, Hispanics, progressives, Republicans. I don't compromise my values, but I never liked to highlight my Hispanic-ness.”

Twice monthly, he holds an open house where he spends five minutes with any constituent who asks.

When he's not working, he loves to ride horses and attend boxing matches and University of New Mexico basketball games. He ends his days in his study, watching ESPN and enjoying a Dominican Republic cigar.

"I like simple things,” he says. "I'm not terribly sophisticated, although I've been fortunate to travel a lot. I feel that I can relate to people, and that my best years are ahead.” http://www.americanprofile.com/article/18988.html




Governor Bill Richardson on his horse, Sundance, riding outside of Santa Fe, in beautiful Northern New Mexico. http://www.nmdemocrats.org/ht/d/Gallery/album_id/245467/pos/245469


got a resume you want to share?

[Mick Knox]

1. wow great post!

[bigtree]

2. from your post to DU's ears

anyone with a resume to share?