in 1981. New Mexico Attorney General In 1986, Stratton was elected to the office of New Mexico Attorney General. He is the only Republican to be elected to that office in New Mexico since 1928. Stratton was limited to one term as New Mexico Attorney General by the New Mexico Constitution and served from 1987 through 1990. During his term as attorney general, Stratton brought actions to determine the constitutionality of legislative retirement, public sector collective bargaining, and the legality of the actions of the Public Employees Retirement Board as well as others. While attorney general, Stratton successfully argued the case of Cotton Petroleum v. State of New Mexico before the U.S. Supreme Court. Also, while serving as attorney general, Stratton brought the largest consumer action in the history of the New Mexico Attorney General's office on behalf of New Mexico consumers against Frontier Ford, gaining a $1.2 million settlement on behalf of the state and consumers. U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission Stratton was nominated by President Bush to be chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in March 2002, confirmed for the position by the U.S. Senate on July 25, 2002, and sworn in as chairman on August 2, 2002. He served in that position until resigning effective July 15, 2006. During his term at the CPSC Stratton oversaw the revamping of the CPSC website, [www.cpsc.gov], the establishment of [www.recalls.gov], the promulgation of the first major regulation by the CPSC involving mattress flammability, the establishment of a retailer reporting model for retailers reporting dangerous products, and the establishment of the CPSC Office of International Programs. Stratton implemented the first memorandum of understanding with AQSIQ in China, where he held the first Sino-US Consumer Product Safety Summit in 2005. The CPSC Office of International programs went on to implement memorandum of understandings with the largest U.S. trading partners including India, Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Taiwan, Korea, Israel as well as others. During the course of his tenure at the CPSC the agency implemented the largest recall in U.S. history involving children's vending machine jewelry and imposed the largest penalty on an industry stakeholder for failure to report the distribution of dangerous products. During that same time, the CPSC worked on a number of other product issues involving ATVs, upholstered furniture, gasoline generators, and various toys and juvenile products including baby bath seats Rio Grande Foundation In 2000,