Outtakes
There's Something About Bill: But No Cigar
By David Alire Garcia

Published: October 17, 2007

Ah, that elusive Nobel Prize.

Al Gore snagged half a Nobel Peace Prize on Oct. 12, spurring speculation that the prestigious award might finally push him into the ’08 presidential race. It also called to mind the Richardson presidential campaign’s frequent invocation of Big Bill’s own Nobel Peace Prize nominations. According to documents on Richardson’s Web site, the governor was a nominee for the award in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2001.

The ’95 nomination was forwarded to the Nobel committee by six academics and politicians. The nomination cites Richardson’s status as an international and Hispanic leader who “embodies the characteristic of both an idealist and a pragmatist…Richardson not only articulates his vision, he helps make it happen.”

In ’97 Richardson was favorably compared to Martin Luther King Jr. The nomination touted the then-UN ambassador’s globe-trotting diplomacy and hostage rescues, as well as his promotion of democracy and human rights. Curiously, it also cited his advocacy for NAFTA.

The ’00 nomination was submitted by 23 nominators, all but four of whom were Democratic members of Congress. The nomination cited Richardson’s “achievements” in Congress, in foreign affairs and while he served as Secretary of Energy and concluded: “Bill Richardson is realizing the kind of humanity that can make a global difference.”

The ’01 nomination emphasized Richardson’s work on nuclear proliferation, noting: “Bill Richardson has shown his fight in the struggle for humanity by shining the beam of reason into those corners of the world darkened by nuclear peril.”

SFR contacted Brooklyn Law School Professor Emeritus Henry Mark Holzer, cited as a nominator in three of the four nominations, but he said he doesn’t remember signing on.

“I have no recollection,” he says, adding that he does remember representing Richardson in court in the early ’90s when the Legislature passed a law that prohibited the use of money raised for a federal race in a state campaign. At the time Richardson was reportedly considering a run for governor.

“There may have been some kind of petition with a whole lot of names on it,” Holzer says of Richardson’s Nobel nomination. “I’m a very, very staunch conservative. I used to represent Ayn Rand. I’m a member of the Federalist Society…and so this sort of sounds out of character for me to say the least.” He adds, “I may have said it sounds like a great idea to me [but] I don’t remember signing anything.”