Bill Richardson

Bill Richardson was born at the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California to William Blaine Richardson Jr. It was his Mother, María Luisa López-Collada Márquez who largely took care of him during his

Monday, February 4th 2008, 4:54 pm

By: News On 6


Bill Richardson was born at the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California to William Blaine Richardson Jr.  It was his Mother, María Luisa López-Collada Márquez who largely took care of him during his youth. 

Richardson's parents sent him to Massachusetts at age 13 to attend a Boston-area preparatory school, Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where he played baseball as a pitcher. He entered Tufts University in 1966 where he continued to play baseball.  While still in high school, he met his future wife, Barbara Flavin. They married in 1972 and have no children.

He earned a Bachelor's degree at Tufts in 1970, majoring in French and political science.  He was a brother and president of Delta Tau Delta. He went on to earn a master's degree in international affairs from Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971. 

 After college, Richardson worked for Republican Congressman Bradford Morse from Massachusetts. He was later a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee .  In 1978, he moved to Santa Fe and ran for Congress in 1980 as a Democrat, losing narrowly to longtime 1st District congressman and future United States Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan ( R ). Two years later, Richardson was elected to New Mexico's newly created third district, taking in most of the northern part of the state. Richardson spent a little more than 14 years in Congress. As a congressman, he kept his interest in foreign relations.  In 1997, Clinton appointed Richardson as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico in November 2002.

His political views: Richardson supports the death penalty, legalized abortion, gun rights and affirmative action policies in government contracts, and opposes lowering the legal drinking age below 21.  He advocates an immigration policy that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and favors issuing official identification documents to them. Richardson opposes the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. He initially supported the war in Iraq but now has called for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the region.  Richardson has stressed that he would leave "zero troops" in Iraq. He also supports universal health care, but opposes a single-payer system. Richardson has called for completely scrapping the No Child Left Behind Act. He also calls for "minimum wage" for teachers that would stand at $40,000 a year.

Source: Wikipedia

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