Richardson, Bill, 1947 November 15-

William Blaine "Bill" Richardson was born November 15, 1947, in Pasadena, California. He recived a B.A. from Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, in 1970; and received a M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Medford, Mass., in 1971. He married Barbara Flavin. 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. On November 2, 1982, he was elected to New Mexico's newly created 3rd district, from which he was re-elected for seven terms and served for more than 14 years. In 1995, he traveled 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. In 1997, he was appointed United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He was nominated to be Secretary of Energy July 22, 1998, confirmed on July 31, 1998, and served August 18, 1998 to January 20, 2001. He was elected governor of New Mexico in November 2002, defeating the Republican candidate, John Sanchez by 17 percentage points. In 2003, he was named Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. He was chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention that nominated John Kerry for the presidency. In July 2005, he 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.