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's campaign was controversial not only for his choice of running mate (impeached former Governor Pedro Braillard Poccard),[7] but also because it pitted him against his own cousin, who won the first round on September 13.

[8] The runoff victory was clouded, however, by the untimely death that week of Hernán González Moreno, a local journalist who had filed charges of financial wrongdoing against the Colombis in a Paso de los Libres federal court.

[10] He ran against the Front for Victory nominee, Corrientes Mayor Carlos "Camau" Espínola; and a rival of Colombi within the UCR, Senator Nito Artaza.