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September 12, 2009

Gov. Richardson's Future Is Again Talk of Santa Fe

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

SANTA FE, N.M. - Gov. Bill Richardson
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/bill_richardso
n/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=Bill%20Richardson&st=cse> got a standing ovation
at a speech last week, and he said it felt like a hug from an old friend. It
had been more than nine months since he was received with anything more than
polite applause.

Mr. Richardson has emerged battered but unbeaten after a yearlong federal
investigation
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/us/politics/19richardson.html> into
accusations that his aides steered bond business to a big campaign
contributor. Prosecutors abandoned the inquiry
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/us/politics/28richardson.html> two weeks
ago, but not before making it impossible for the governor to accept a
cabinet post in the Obama administration, crimping his influence at home and
damaging his popularity.

"I now know the burden of being unfairly accused," Mr. Richardson said this
week in an interview.

"A cloud has been lifted," he continued, "and I feel vindicated, and I feel
like I'm back 100 percent."

It has been a rough period for Mr. Richardson, a Democrat and arguably the
most popular and powerful governor in his state's history.

Now, however, he has returned to form, political scientists here say. His
poll numbers are creeping up, and a national appointment is again a
possibility. Everyone in Santa Fe, the capital, is speculating about what he
will do next. He has 14 months left as governor and cannot serve another
term.

In recent weeks, the governor has been active on the international scene,
sparking rumors that President Obama
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/i
ndex.html?inline=nyt-per> might offer another assignment. He was in Cuba on
a trade mission the day it was announced that the United States attorney in
Albuquerque had abandoned efforts to bring criminal charges against him,
leading New Mexican pundits to wonder aloud if he might be named special
envoy to that island.

He also hosted a delegation of North Korean officials in the state, after
having played a minor advisory role in the release of two American
journalists imprisoned there. Recently, he took on another international
mission, agreeing to try to help free three American hikers imprisoned in
Iran.

Mr. Richardson said these freelance forays into international affairs
signified nothing. He is emphatic that he is not angling for a job in
Washington, although, as always, he does not rule anything out.

"I'm not planning my next move to Washington," said the governor, whose own
presidential campaign fizzled last year. "That used to be an agenda of mine,
but no longer."

Nor does the private sector hold any appeal. "I have no interest in
lobbying," Mr. Richardson said. "I have no interest in making money. I have
no interest in leaving New Mexico."

The governor said he planned to use his last year in office to focus on
reducing the dropout rate in the state's public schools and to cement its
position as a leader in solar technology and other alternative sources of
energy. Both appear to be efforts to shore up his legacy, politicians here
say.

He also faces a budget crisis. The collapse of natural gas prices and the
national recession
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/recession_an
d_depression/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier> have squeezed revenues, and
a $441 million revenue shortfall has opened in the current budget,
threatening to undo some of the expansion in spending that has occurred in
his two terms in office. Next year's forecasts are just as bleak.

"Our bubble has burst, and all the employees we hired - and then raised
their salaries - all that's going to come home to roost," said the State
Senate president pro tempore, Timothy Z. Jennings, a Democrat.

In political terms, Mr. Richardson's fall from grace gave Republicans an
opening and a platform for trying to take back the governorship next year.
Conservatives have been honing their anticorruption speeches and hoping to
tar the leading Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish
<http://www.ltgovernor.state.nm.us/biography.php> , with the
administration's perceived pay-to-play troubles.

That strategy makes sense, because, quite apart from the accusations against
the governor, several other Democrats have been indicted on corruption
charges in the last two years.

And, said the state Republican chairman, Harvey Yates, the assistant United
States attorney, Gregory J. Fouratt, never actually exonerated Mr.
Richardson. In his last letter to defense lawyers, Mr. Fouratt said the
investigation had "revealed that pressure from the governor's office
resulted in the corruption of the procurement process."

This last salvo from Mr. Fouratt, a Republican, enraged Mr. Richardson and
his aides. "My administration acted entirely properly," the governor said in
the interview. "We did nothing wrong."

Republicans say the lack of an indictment may not matter much. "In politics,
you don't necessarily have to be convicted," Senator Stuart Ingle, the
Republican minority leader, said. "The voters can be the best grand jury of
all."

That said, Ms. Denish is the favorite to win. She has already amassed a $2
million campaign fund, and no strong Republican candidate has emerged to
challenge her.

For his part, Mr. Richardson says he will stay out of the race. He looks
forward, he said, to finishing out his term. Then he plans to take some time
off to travel the country in a car - driving himself for the first time in
years - to fulfill his longtime dream of visiting every major league
baseball park.

"I look forward to becoming a normal person," he said.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 17, 2009
An article on Saturday about the future of Gov. Bill Richardson of New
Mexico misstated the ancestry of one of the two American journalists
recently released from prison in North Korea. (Mr. Richardson played a minor
advisory role in their release.) Laura Ling is Chinese-American - not
Korean-American, which is the ancestry of Euna Lee, who was also released.


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