Bill Richardson

News outlets are reporting that President-Elect Barack Obama has picked New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson to be Secretary of Commerce in the new administration. Obama is expected to make the announcement after Thanksgiving.

Bill Richardson was first elected to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives in 1983. He served as a Congressman for 14 years. In 1996, then-President Bill Clinton sent Richardson to Iraq for one-on-one negotiations with Saddam Hussein to secure the release of two American aerospace workers. Richardson followed that with other missions to Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, and Nicaragua among other places.

In 1997, Clinton appointed Richardson as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Richardson served in that post until he was appointed as Secretary of Energy under President Clinton in 1998. His time in that post was tainted by the Wen Ho Lee espionage scandal. In that event Richardson publicly named Lee as suspected of giving nuclear secrets to the Chinese government. Lee later won a settlement against the government after he was cleared of all charges.

Bill Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico in November 2002, and upon his inauguration in January 2003, he became the only Hispanic governor of a U.S. state. During his first year as governor he signed a sweeping personal income tax cut. He went on to oversee the construction of a new rail commuter line in Albuquerque and codify sexual orientation and gender identity in the state's civil rights categories. In December 2005, Richardson announced plans to bring space tourism to New Mexico via a partnership with Virgin Atlantic billionare Richard Branson.

Richardson was re-elected as governor in November 2006, and during his second term he signed legislation to legalize the use of marijuana for medical uses. During his time as governor, Richardson also took on missions to North Korea at the behest of the White House and to Sudan to negotiate the release of journalist Paul Salopek.

Richardson was briefly a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in the 2008 election. Poor showings in the early primaries and caucuses, however, caused him to drop out of the race in January 2008. He later sparked controversy when he endorsed Barack Obama for the nomination over his longtime friend Hillary Clinton.

Richardson was rumored to be in contention for the Secretary of State post due to his many accomplishments in the foreign affairs field, but Hillary Clinton is reported to have been chosen for that prestigious position instead.