WASHINGTON – Bill Richardson, a two-term Democratic governor of New Mexico and an American ambassador to the United Nations who additionally worked for years to protected the discharge of Americans detained by means of international adversaries, has died. He was once 75.
The Richardson Center for Global Engagement, which he based and led, mentioned in a remark Saturday that he died in his sleep at his house in Chatham, Massachusetts.
“He lived his entire life in the service of others — including both his time in government and his subsequent career helping to free people held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” mentioned Mickey Bergman, the middle’s vp. “There was no person that Gov. Richardson would not speak with if it held the promise of returning a person to freedom. The world has lost a champion for those held unjustly abroad and I have lost a mentor and a dear friend.”
Before his election in 2002 as governor, Richardson was the U.S. envoy to the United Nations and energy secretary under President Bill Clinton and served 14 years as a congressman representing northern New Mexico.
But he also forged an identity as an unofficial diplomatic troubleshooter. He traveled the globe negotiating the release of hostages and American servicemen from North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan and bargained with a who’s who of America’s adversaries, including Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It was a role that Richardson relished, once describing himself as “the informal undersecretary for thugs.”
“I plead guilty to photo-ops and getting human beings rescued and improving the lives of human beings,” he once told reporters.
He helped protected the 2021 free up of American journalist Danny Fenster from a Myanmar jail and this 12 months negotiated the liberty of Taylor Dudley, who crossed the border from Poland into Russia. He flew to Moscow for a meeting with Russian government officials in the months before the release last year of Marine veteran Trevor Reed in a prisoner swap and also worked on the cases of Brittney Griner, the WNBA star freed by Moscow last year, and Michael White, a Navy veteran freed by Iran in 2020.
Roger Carstens, the U.S. government’s chief hostage negotiator, called Richardson “a friend and partner in bringing wrongfully detained Americans and hostages home.” Posting on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Carstens said: “I will miss his wise counsel and friendship.”
Armed with a golden resume and wealth of experience in foreign and domestic affairs, Richardson ran for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president in hopes of becoming the nation’s first Hispanic president. He dropped out of the race after fourth place finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
Richardson was the nation’s only Hispanic governor during his two terms. He described being governor as “the best job I ever had.”
“It’s the most fun. You can get the most done. You set the agenda,” Richardson said.
As governor, Richardson signed legislation in 2009 that repealed the death penalty. He called it the “most difficult decision in my political life” because he previously had supported capital punishment.
Other accomplishments as governor included $50,000-a-year minimum salaries for the most qualified teachers in New Mexico, an increase in the state minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.50 an hour, pre-kindergarten programs for 4-year-olds, renewable energy requirements for utilities and financing for large infrastructure projects, including a commercial spaceport in southern New Mexico and a $400 million commuter rail system. Virgin Galactic launched the first of the commercial flights this summer.
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., called Richardson a “giant in public service and government.”
“In his post-government career, he was trusted to handle some of the most sensitive diplomatic crises, and he did so with great success. Here in New Mexico, we will always remember him as our governor. He never stopped fighting for the state he called home,” Lujan said in a statement.
Some of his most prominent global work began in December 1994, when he was visiting North Korean nuclear sites and word came that an American helicopter pilot had been downed and his co-pilot killed.
The Clinton White House enlisted Richardson’s help and, after days of tough negotiations, the then-congressman accompanied the remains of Chief Warrant Officer David Hilemon while paving the way for Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall to return home.
The following year, and after a personal appeal from Richardson, Saddam Hussein freed two Americans who had been imprisoned for four months, charged with illegally crossing into Iraq from Kuwait.
Richardson continued his freelance diplomacy even while serving as governor. He had barely 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 remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War.
In 2006, he persuaded Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to free Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Paul Salopek.
In a brief interview with The Associated Press in August, Richardson said he was proud of the work he had done to free dozens of people over the years and of his advocacy for the Navajo Nation.
Richardson and former Navajo Nation President Peterson Zah created a fund to offer supplies and equipment to the Navajo Nation to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, providing personal protective equipment, food, water and hundreds of pairs of shoes to Navajo students in the state.
Richardson transformed the political landscape in New Mexico. He raised and spent record amounts on his campaigns. He brought Washington-style politics to an easygoing western state with a part-time Legislature.
Lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, complained that Richardson threatened retribution against those who opposed him. Former Democratic state Sen. Tim Jennings of Roswell once said Richardson was “beating people over the head” in his dealings with lobbyists on a health care issue. Richardson dismissed criticisms of his administrative style.
“Admittedly, I am aggressive. I use the bully pulpit of the governorship,” Richardson said. “But I don’t threaten retribution. They say I am a vindictive person. I just don’t believe that.”
Longtime friends and supporters attributed Richardson’s success partly to his relentlessness. Bob Gallagher, who headed the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said if Richardson wanted something done then “expect him to have a shotgun at the end of the hallway. Or a ramrod.”
In a statement, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, described Richardson as a visionary who saw New Mexico’s potential before others did. “New Mexico, our country, and, frankly, the entire world lost a champion today. Bill Richardson was a titan among us, fighting for the little guy, world peace, and everything in between.” After dropping by the wayside of the 2008 presidential race, Richardson counseled Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. That took place in spite of a longstanding friendship with the Clintons.
Obama later nominated Richardson as secretary of trade, however Richardson withdrew in early 2009 as a result of a federal investigation into an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving his management in New Mexico.
Months later, the federal investigation ended without a fees in opposition to Richardson and his former most sensible aides. Richardson had a stricken tenure as power secretary as a result of a scandal over lacking laptop apparatus with nuclear guns secrets and techniques at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the federal government’s investigation and prosecution of former nuclear guns scientist Wen Ho Lee.
Richardson authorized Lee’s firing at Los Alamos in 1999. Lee spent 9 months in solitary confinement, charged with 59 counts of mishandling delicate information. Lee later pleaded accountable to one rely of mishandling laptop information and was once launched with the apology of a federal pass judgement on.
William Blaine Richardson was once born in Pasadena, California, however grew up in Mexico City with a Mexican mom and an American father who was once a U.S. financial institution government.
He attended prep faculty in Massachusetts and was once a celebrity baseball participant. He later went to Tufts University and its graduate faculty in global members of the family, incomes a grasp’s stage in global affairs.
Richardson moved to New Mexico in 1978 after running as a Capitol Hill staffer. He sought after to run for political place of work and mentioned New Mexico, with its Hispanic roots, gave the impression of a just right position. He campaigned for Congress simply two years later — his most effective dropping race.
In 1982, he received a brand new congressional seat from northern New Mexico that the state picked up in reapportionment. He resigned from Congress in 1997 to sign up for the Clinton management as U.N. ambassador and was secretary of power in 1998, protecting the post till the tip of the Clinton presidency.
_____
Former Associated Press author Barry Massey contributed important biographical subject material to this obituary.