Bill Richardson in The Contenders
On Corporations:
Resigned from Peregrine Systems amid 2002 financial collapse
Peregrine Systems was a San Diego-based software company whose CEO was Stephen Gardner, brother-in-law of Richardson’s wife. Richardson was put on the board as an outside director from Feb. 2001. During this period, the directors were trying to hide
financial dealings, including non-existent sales, and hiding the severity of its losses. The company eventually went into bankruptcy and Gardner was later charged with securities fraud. When he ran for governor, Richardson got away with claiming “I had n
involvement because I was an ‘outside director’“ --he didn’t attend numerous meetings and ”didn’t have time“ to read corporate reports, he said.But according to the San Diego Reader, ”Records show that Richardson attended, in person or by phone,
15 board meetings. In those meetings, directors were hearing that the company might get caught cooking the books.“
In May 2002 the company announced it had found accounting irregularities and the stock collapsed. Richardson resigned in June.
Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.190-191
Nov 11, 2007
On Energy & Oil:
Recommends 90% GHG reduction to IPCC
The “man-on-the-moon” energy and climate planks in Richardson’s presidential platform [is based on] comparing his climate protection initiative to the Apollo program. Richardson says, “When John F. Kennedy challenged this country to reach the moon, he
challenged us to get there in 10 years, not 20 or 30 or 40.” Richardson proudly identified his green policy to be the most aggressive of any candidate--with John Edwards and Chris Dodd close seconds--saying, “we need it much faster and more boldly
than people are suggesting.“
The UN-affiliated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in order to hold global warming to two degrees Celsius. The top House and Senate bills both go for
80%. Gore says 90%. Richardson says 90%, too.
Richardson’s plan also reflects the newest iteration of this issue among scientists, pols, and activists: energy policy and climate change policy are now the same thing.
Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.104-105
Nov 11, 2007
On Energy & Oil:
Served on boards of three large oil companies
His website urges voters to “Join Bill’s Call for a New Energy Revolution”. The trail of money--and facts--tells a different story. As benefits a leading politician from one of the nation’s historic bastions of oil and gas, Richardson has a network of
connections with [and contributors from] the petroleum industry. He sat on the boards of directors of three large oil companies--San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corp, Houston-based Diamond Offshore Drilling, and Denver-based Venoco. Diamond Drilling,
the offshore exploration firm with deep Republican ties on whose board Richardson served in 2001 and 2002, is engaged in offshore drilling. Venoco is an oil producer with a first-of-its-kind controversial horizontal drilling project in a state sanctuary
off the coast near Santa Barbara.
He sold all of his [oil company] stock only in May 2007, saying it had become a “distraction” in his campaign and “because I was getting questions, I just felt it was best to divest myself.”
Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.188-190
Nov 11, 2007
On Foreign Policy:
2001-2: Worked on energy strategy for Kissinger Association
Least palatable of all would be Richardson’s stint, during that same period of 2001 to 2002 as senior managing director of Kissinger McLarty Associates, an international strategic advisory firm specializing in Latin America and international energy
issues. The firm was formed by the merger of two organizations headed by former Secretary of State and Mack McLarty, who served as President Clinton’s chief of staff. No mention is made of the association on Richardson’s campaign website.
Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.192
Nov 11, 2007
On Gun Control:
1993: Opposed Brady Bill in Congress
Richardson positions himself strongly as a man of the West--down to his cowboy boots and string tie. As part of this image, he promotes his support of gun ownership, which dates back to his opposition in Congress to the 1993 Brady Bill. When the National
Rifle Association endorsed him in his second run for governor in 2006, Richardson joined them for the announcement at the NRA-sponsored National Police Shooting Championships, held, according to the group’s website, at “a new, state-of-the-art facility i
Albuquerque’s Shooting Range Park, made possible with $1.4 million in funding and vigorous support from governor Bill Richardson.“ The NRA’s executive director reported that Richardson ”has treated us first class.“ Richardson, who supported a law allowin
New Mexicans to carry concealed weapons, told an appreciative crowd that he had a concealed-carry permit himself. ”I an not packing today, though, because I have plenty of State Police officers here to protect me.“
Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.187-188
Nov 11, 2007
On Immigration:
Declared state of emergency in NM’s four border counties
Because of his Mexican roots and his governorship of a border state, Richardson is in a position to play a particularly important role in the politics of immigration.In 2007, he first supported Bush’s compromise plan, which calls for a fence on the
Mexican border & a controversial guest worker program, plus a plan that allows illegal immigrants living here to buy their way to citizenship. Then he reversed himself and took a stand against the fence.
In general, he argued that whatever happens on
the border should be aimed at keeping families together and not breaking them apart. But he also seeks to show that he is tough on illegal immigration, highlighting “securing the border” as the first point in his immigration plan and pushing for increase
enforcement on the Mexican as well as the US side. In 2005, Richardson declared a state of emergency in New Mexico’s four border counties, which released $1.75 million in state funds for overtime pay to local forces to fight illegal immigration.
Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.186-187
Nov 11, 2007
On Principles & Values:
Well-off childhood in Mexico as son of Citibank executive
While William Blaine Richardson III is of 3/4 Mexican descent, it’s the other 1/4 that gave him his name, and he had a tonier upbringing than any of the other Democratic candidates: a well-off childhood in Mexico City as son of a Citibank executive,
and prep school in Massachusetts. None of this reduces his significance as the first Latino presidential candidate, at a time when Latinos, by far the fastest-growing portion of the population, are becoming a force in national elections.
Source: The Contenders, by Laura Flanders, p.185-186
Nov 11, 2007