Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
A spokesman said in March that Gov. Bill Richardson wasn’t interested in becoming the chief lobbyist for the film industry, but The New York Times is reporting that Richardson is once again in the mix for the lucrative job.
Here’s what The Times reported on Sunday:
“According to a headhunter with knowledge of the search, but who asked for anonymity because the search is private, one candidate is Christopher J. Dodd, the powerful Democratic senator from Connecticut, who is retiring. Bill Richardson, the exiting governor of New Mexico, is also in the mix, this person said.”
The job of chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, which has been vacant since April, pays $1.2 million a year.
A Richardson spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment from The Times or Politico.
Richardson has been rumored to be in the mix for the job for months. In March, here’s what Richardson spokesman Gilbert Gallegos had to say about that:
“The governor is not interested in this job and he is not interested in becoming a lobbyist. He plans to live in Santa Fe and drive around the country visiting Major League ballparks after term ends.”
If that were still the case, why not be quick to say that again to the national news organizations asking about the job?
Richardson, of course, has been good to the film industry as governor, signing into law incentives that have brought a number of movies and TV shows to New Mexico.