Gov. Bill Richardson is working hard to earn the support of American Indians for his presidential bid.
Since announcing his presidential run on Jan. 21, Richardson has made a series of visible moves that clearly support the causes of American Indians. George Hardeen, communications director for the Office of the President and Vice President of the Navajo Nation, said that’s nothing new: Richardson, he said, has provided “consistent support” for Navajos in his years in elected office, and that has won him many friends.
“There’s always been a good deal of support for Gov. Richardson,” Hardeen said. “I think Governor Richardson’s record is one that native people could clearly support (in a presidential race) without question.”
Consider the moves Richardson has made in recent weeks:
• On Jan. 1, three weeks before he kicked off his presidential campaign, Richardson was sworn in for his second term as governor. Administering the oath of office was National Congress of American Indians President and Ohkay Owingeh Gov. Joe Garcia, the first American Indian to administer the oath in the state’s history.
• On Jan. 27, Richardson announced the resolution of negotiations of gaming compacts with the state’s Indian tribes, and is now attempting to sell the deal to the Legislature.
• On Jan. 31, Richardson appointed Lynda Lovejoy to the state Senate, making her the first American Indian woman to serve in that body.
• On Feb. 20, Richardson called on the New Mexico delegation in Washington, D.C. to oppose the Bush Administration’s proposed cutbacks in American Indian health care funds and to support reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which has languished in Congress since 2000 without reauthorization.
• In an interview with Indian Country Today published Feb. 23, Richardson announced that, if elected president, he would create a federal, cabinet-level secretary of Indian affairs.
• On Feb. 26, Richardson spoke to the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C. and became the first 2008 presidential candidate to accept an invitation to the “Prez on the Rez” debate to be held this summer at the Morongo Band of Mission Indians reservation outside Palm Springs, Calif., according to the Associated Press.
• During that speech, Richardson also promised to resolve a multibillion-dollar lawsuit over Indian trust lands.
‘I want your support’
Richardson is, obviously, attempting to make the case that he’s the best candidate for American Indians. Though his campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article, the Associated Press quoted Richardson as saying during the Feb. 26 speech that, “with Native American issues, there’s been no one stronger.”
“I will come to Indian Country. Of course I want your support,” he said.
Hardeen said Richardson has always listened to Navajos.
“My boss, (Navajo Nation) President (Joe) Shirley, refers to Governor Richardson as a brother,” he told me. “He certainly makes himself available to the Navajo Nation president.”
But it’s more than accessibility that has won Richardson friends, according to Hardeen.
“He’s one who actually does what he says he will for natives,” he said.
In the January news release about his push for reauthorization of the federal act, Richardson reminded journalists of that support.
“Since taking office in 2003, Governor Richardson has urged Congress on numerous communications to adequately fund Indian health, called for state and tribal consultations on a government-to-government basis to improve health care, and elevated the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs to a cabinet level position,” the news release states.
‘I’ve made them partners’
Richardson says such support isn’t about political pandering.
“Since the beginning… I felt that our Native American people have not gotten the priority attention they deserve, so I’ve made them partners,” he told Indian Country Today. “… I’ve never felt that it is a matter of just trying to get votes or feeling good, but that the Native American people are partners, and if you want to resolve problems in New Mexico involving land, water or energy, you got to have the Native people with you.”
Garcia, in a January news release about his selection to administer the oath of office to Richardson, had nothing but praise.
“Gov. Richardson has been a stalwart supporter of the rights and inherent roles of the tribes and pueblos of New Mexico, and I am glad to call him my friend and a friend of the Indian people of this state,” Garcia said.
Walking a fine line
One issue that reveals the political line Richardson has to walk in seeking the support of American Indians is the proposal currently being considered by the state Legislature to give an $85-million tax break for the Desert Rock coal plant, which will be built on the Navajo Nation by Sithe Global Power of Houston.
The plant will send an estimated 10.5 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year, effectively canceling out Richardson’s goal of reducing such emissions throughout the state by 11 million tons each year. Combating the effects of global warming with a “man-on-the-moon effort” is one of the cornerstones of Richardson’s presidential platform.
But Navajo leaders support the project and are pushing hard for the tax break.
Richardson spokesman Jon Goldstein has said the governor “is concerned with the potential negative impacts (the coal plant) would have on his aggressive climate change emission reduction goals.” At the same time, Richardson has chosen to remain neutral on the tax-break proposal.
Hardeen said Richardson has done so much for American Indians that his lack of support for the tax breaks isn’t enough to keep them from backing him, so Richardson has struck a balance that is acceptable to the leadership of the Navajo Nation. Many environmental groups aren’t happy, however, and have been joined in their protests by some who live on the reservation, but their protests have focused on lawmakers, not Richardson.
Another issue on which Richardson has, for the time being, sidestepped controversy, is the proposal by the Jemez Pueblo and Santa Fe art dealer and developer Gerald Peters to build a casino in Anthony. The U.S. Department of the Interior is currently considering the proposal. If it’s approved there, it will be up to Richardson to decide whether the casino can be built.
The rich and powerful are on both sides of the debate, and Richardson has given few clues about what he will decide if the federal government approves the project, other than to say he thinks there are enough casinos in New Mexico but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t approve the project.
I was unable to reach the governor of the Jemez Pueblo for comment.
‘A little too much’
At the national American Indian conference in Washington at the end of February, the group announced that the “Prez on the Rez” debate would be held in California. Sandia Pueblo outside Albuquerque was one of two finalists considered to host the debate between 2008 Democratic contenders, but some of the other candidates complained that holding the debate there would favor Richardson.
Richardson was conciliatory in addressing that issue, but his statement indicates the confidence he has in his support among American Indians.
“I was hoping you’d have it at Sandia, but I guess that didn’t work out,” he said, according to a separate article in Indian Country Today. It was a comment that drew laughter from those in attendance.
“I guess the other candidates felt that was a little too much,” he said.
Gov. Bill Richardson is working hard to earn the support of American Indians for his presidential bid.