Ricardo Colombi
Ricardo Colombi | |
|---|---|
| Governor of Corrientes | |
| Assumed office December 10, 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Arturo Colombi |
| Corrientes Senator | |
| In office December 10, 2007 – December 10, 2009 | |
| National Deputy | |
| In office December 10, 2005 – December 10, 2007 | |
| Governor of Corrientes | |
| In office December 10, 2001 – December 10, 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Oscar Aguad |
| Succeeded by | Arturo Colombi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 August 1957 Mercedes, Corrientes |
| Political party | Radical Civic Union |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Ricardo Colombi (born August 30, 1957) is an Argentine lawyer and politician elected Governor of Corrientes Province in 2009.
Life and times
Ricardo Horacio Colombi was born in Mercedes, a Corrientes Province agricultural and cattle ranching hub at the southern end of the Esteros del Iberá wetlands. He enrolled at the National University of the Northeast and became active in the Franja Morada, the collegiate chapter of the centrist Radical Civic Union (UCR), following which he earned a Law Degree and practiced in his native Mercedes.
Colombi first campaigned for elected office in 1991, and was elected mayor of Mercedes that year. He earned a reputation as a highly-accessible mayor in subsequent years, and was reelected in 1995 and 1999. Following the June 1999 impeachment of Governor Pedro Braillard Poccard of the conservative PANU, Colombi launched a campaign for governor and, by 2001, had become the leading opposition figure to the powerful head of the PANU, Raúl Romero Feris. Romero Feris had been convicted of embezzlement, and his controversial 2001 candidacy unified his former allies, the Liberal Party of Corrientes, and a significant faction of the Justicialist Party in opposition to it.[1]
They rallied behind Colombi, who ran on the UCR-led Front for Everyone alliance. Romero Feris narrowly won the first round, October 14, but a November 4 runoff election resulted in a victory for Colombi, who won with 51.2% of the vote.[2] Governing during a national economic recovery, and enjoying President Néstor Kirchner's support, Colombi was prompted by term limits in 2005 to run for a seat in the Argentine Congress, but advanced a cousin, Arturo Colombi, as the Front for All candidate for governor. The Corrientes UCR's continued support for the alliance (endorsed by Kirchner) led to a rebuke from the national committee of the UCR itself, and this triggered a revolt from the Corrientes chapter of the party, as well as a number of others' (notably in Mendoza Province). These differences led to the appearance that year of "K" Radicals–UCR governors and other lawmakers allied with President Kirchner.[3]
These developments created the possibility of Ricardo Colombi's selection as Kirchner's running-mate in the event of the president's campaign for reelection in 2007 (the president did not, ultimately, run for reelection, instead fielding his wife, Cristina). Colombi broke with his cousin (the governor), however, and left the Front for All in 2007, when he ran for a seat in the Corrientes Senate on the UCR ticket, and was elected with the endorsement of third parties;[4] as provincial senator, Colombi focused on educational and cultural issues.[5]
Colombi again ran for governor on a UCR-led Corrientes Encounter party, ahead of the 2009 mid-term elections. The campaign pitted him against his cousin, who won the first round on September 13. Ricardo Colombi won the runoff on October 4, however, with over 62% of the vote.[6]