bill richardson

The New Mexico Independent’s Trip Jennings reports:
Gov. Bill Richardson [D], his chief of staff Brian Condit, budget secretary Katherine Miller and security officers were gone within minutes from the scene of an accident Saturday in which a houseboat was sideswiped and another was smashed into at Elephant Butte State Park, according to an eyewitness.

That’s what The Associated Press is reporting, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the investigation.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won’t be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor’s large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.
The decision [...]

The New Mexico Independent’s Trip Jennings reports that Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) is getting in on some of that sweet, sweet executive privilege action:
The [New Mexico] Independent sought to view documents from the governor’s office from January through August 2006 that would have divulged with whom he had met in the months prior to the [...]

It looks like Gov. Bill Richardson’s (D-N.M.) troubles might be getting a bit worse. Richardson is currently entangled in a federal pay-to-play investigation in his home state. Today, The New Mexico Independent’s Heath Haussamen reports that Steven Rattner, who is currently overseeing the Obama administration’s auto industry bailout program, has also been a major contributor [...]

For the last few years, New Mexico has been close to becoming the first state between the coasts to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples. Many Democrats in both houses of the state legislature support the idea, and as a presidential candidate last year, Gov. Bill Richardson pandered to gay audiences saying he would gladly [...]

Federal prosecutors are asking whether David Contarino, a man Gov. Bill Richardson once described as the “strategic mind” of his administration and “my most senior and trusted aide,” was involved in the alleged pay-to-play scheme that derailed the governor’s nomination for commerce secretary days ago, writers at Bloomberg are reporting.

SANTA FE, N.M. — A look at how Gov. Bill Richardson handled himself during the months before withdrawing his name for commerce secretary helps explain why, nationally, there was so much confusion and surprise at the news.

Via Dana Goldstein, Esquire rounds up some quotes, anecdotes and nyuk-nyuks from the new Commerce Secretary-designate (and possible post-Clinton secretary of state?). Here’s my favorite, with a guest appearance from Saddam Hussein:
Saddam had these small, black eyes. I started giving him my spiel, which was, “I want you to release these Americans as a humanitarian [...]

If confirmed as Secretary of Commerce, Gov. Bill Richardson would oversee the U.S. Commercial Service, the agency’s equivalent of the State Dept.’s foreign service.

Many in the punditocracy wondered aloud why New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson — a former congressman, energy secretary, and ambassador to the United Nations and presidential candidate — would be willing to take the historically low-profile position of secretary of commerce. (Quick, name either of the men who held the job in the current administration.)
Well, [...]