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Thursday, November 06, 2008

Governor Quiet on His Future

By Jeff Jones And Michael Coleman
Journal Staff Writer
       Will he or won't he?
    Speculation about Gov. Bill Richardson giving up New Mexico's top job for a prominent national post is sure to hit a fever pitch after Barack Obama's White House win.
    Among the possibilities rumbling though the rumor mill: secretary of state, president of the World Bank, Democratic National Committee chairman, interior secretary, ambassador to China or special envoy to Latin America.
    And although Richardson doesn't appear to be ruling out a move, New Mexico's other top Democrat — Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. — seemed to slam the door shut on national speculation that he could become America's next energy secretary.
    "I'm happy here in the Senate, and that's where I plan to stay," Bingaman told the Journal on election night.
    Bingaman aides said the senator can shape national energy policy more effectively in his current post as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee than as head of a large bureaucracy.
    The speculation about Bingaman going to the Department of Energy has cropped up on Politico.com, in newspapers such as the The Hill and the Wall Street Journal and other places.
    Richardson has said he loves being governor, and he has two years remaining in his second term. But he hasn't definitively ruled out a position in an Obama administration if one is offered, and he was noticeably tight-lipped on two occasions Wednesday.
    During a news conference with New Mexico reporters, Richardson said he hadn't spoken with Obama since before Election Day and declined to say when the two would speak again.
    "I've said it before, and I'm going to say it again: I'm happy as governor of New Mexico and I'm planning my legislative agenda," Richardson said. "I don't want to comment any further."
    On election night, Richardson seemed to give himself a little more wiggle room in a brief interview with the Journal.
    "I'm not looking for a job, I haven't had any conversations about a job — but I'm not going to preclude anything," the governor said.
    And NBC reported that during a conference call with other Western states leaders, Richardson said nothing when asked whether he had been contacted about a job by the Obama camp.
    "Not a peep from Governor Richardson," an NBC blog posting said.
    Plugging for the gov.
    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was in on that conference call, and the blog posting quoted Reid as saying, "There's no one more qualified to be part of the president's Cabinet than Bill Richardson, and I would hope that he's under consideration."
    Richardson served as energy secretary and U.N. ambassador under President Clinton. And the governor took a political risk in March when he opted to endorse Obama in his primary-election battle with Hillary Clinton.
    Richardson, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination himself before dropping out in January, hit the campaign trail hard for Obama in the past several weeks, making stops in numerous states.
    His national political stock could be at an all-time high.
    Simon Rosenberg, a Washington insider and friend of Richardson's who heads up the New Democrat Network in Washington, said the governor can probably count on some kind of offer from Obama. The question is whether the position offered will be tempting enough to induce him to leave the governorship.
    "I think they are going to try very hard to find as important a job as they can for Governor Richardson because of his skill set: his knowledge of global energy policy and global economics," Rosenberg said.
    More than one of Richardson's New Mexico appointees have said privately that they believed Richardson would be headed east if Obama won the White House.
    Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor with The Cook Political Report in Washington, D.C., said former governors often have options when they're done with their gubernatorial stints.
    "One, they run for the Senate — but there's no immediate vacancy that I know of, since one was just filled," Duffy said, referring to Rep. Tom Udall's U.S. Senate victory in New Mexico on Tuesday.
    In the alternative, "You go sit on a lot of (business) boards ... or you hit the speaking circuit, and make some money," Duffy said.
    "That doesn't strike me as Richardson's style," she said. "He wants to be in the game."
    Journal staff writer Dan Boyd contributed to this report.