Governor Bill Richardson's Vision of Health Care as President of the United States

Who is Bill Richardson?

Bill Richardson is bi-cultural. As a Democratic candidate for Presidency that certainly factors into who he is as a person and what he would be like as a President.

He was born in 1947. His dad met his mom while working as a banker in Mexico City. His parents expected great things from Bill including giving back to the community. Governor Richardson attributes his work ethic and striving nature to the lessons his parents taught him. "My father made it very simple, he used to say, 'If you're going to do something, be the best at it, that usually means you have to work harder than everyone else."' (from http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/about_bill?id=0004)

Governor Richardson served as the Representative for New Mexico for 15 years. In 1997 he became the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and in 1998, he was confirmed by the United States Senate as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. Governor Richardson has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

His Politics

In 2002 Bill Richardson decided to run for Governor to help improve his state. His vision was simple. He was going to make a difference. He broke the world record according to his website for handshakes at the New Mexico State Fair. He was elected in a landslide.

As Governor of New Mexico he has created over 80,000 new jobs, Unemployment is the lowest it has been in 30 years. People are doing better financially with higher incomes and the pay for teachers has gone up as has the quality of the school system. Bill balanced the budget for five years in a row.

New Mexico has become the "Clean Energy State." Governor Richardson signed a law requiring state utilities to increase their use of renewable energy considerably.