Golden State offers Obama a dream team

By Lisa Vorderbrueggen, Josh Richman, Matt Krupnick and Denis Cuff
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 11/30/2008 12:00:00 AM PST

Speculation is practically an Olympic sport in politics and few events on the political calendar draw more buzz than the post-presidential election appointments scramble.

Some Californians fretted that President-elect Barack Obama would draw too heavily on his Midwestern and Harvard Law School ties to fill his top secretary posts and the hundreds of lesser-known but key deputy positions.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger even volunteered his services. But if the numbers of Californians on the numerous potential appointee lists is any indication, the Golden State will enjoy ample representation in Washington.

"Starting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California is in pretty good shape to start with," said Hoover. "And Obama seems to be the kind of guy who likes to hear about new ideas and new things. He has already gone outside his network if you look at some of the appointments he has already made."

The Bay Area's named and would-be named members of the Obama team hail from its elite universities, such as UC Berkeley and Stanford, congressional delegation, high-tech companies and law firms.

Many are former Clinton administration appointees who have toiled at universities and consulting firms during the eight years of President Bush's administration.

Some are long shots for the prestigious secretary posts, and others are strong contenders for the numerous lower-profile but influential policy positions.

"The deputy positions don't get the publicity, but they can be more important than the top job, where someone, in terms of getting things done, is in more of a public relations position," Fiorina said.

Here's a list of Bay Area leaders whose names are prominently featured in new accounts as contenders for Obama administration assignments:

Jeff Bleich

California State University trustee Bleich has been mentioned as a possible solicitor general, although he attributes much of that talk to his mother's lobbying efforts.

Bleich, who has known Obama for 18 years and served as one of his major Bay Area fundraisers, has said he is not actively seeking an administration position.

A Piedmont resident and attorney with Munger, Tolles & Olson, Bleich was appointed by Bill Clinton to the White House Commission on Youth Violence in 1999. He is immediate past president of the California State Bar.

Mariano-Florentino Cuellar

A Stanford Law School professor, Cuellar is co-chairman of the Obama transition team's working group on immigration policy; there has been talk he could be appointed to lead the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security.

An expert in how organizations cope with the legal responsibility for managing complex criminal justice, regulatory and international security problems, Cuellar, 36, is on the executive committees of the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation as well as the Stanford International Initiative.

His recent research has investigated the role of criminal enforcement in managing transnational threats; immigration and refugee policy in the United States and the developing world; the scope of "national security" during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and George W. Bush; and other topics.

Cuellar has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and served as a fellow of the U.S.-Japan Foundation. Before coming to Stanford in 2001, he was senior adviser to the U.S. Treasury Department's Undersecretary for Enforcement during the Clinton administration. Earlier, he clerked for 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Mary Schroeder.

A California native who lives in unincorporated Stanford just off the university's campus, Cuellar holds a law degree from Yale and a political science doctorate from Stanford, and he is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Linda Darling-Hammond

The Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, Darling-Hammond heads the Obama transition team's education policy working group and is considered a contender for appointment as U.S. secretary of education. An online petition urging her appointment had 2,597 signatures Monday afternoon.

An expert in school restructuring, teacher quality and educational equity, Darling-Hammond, 57, launched the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute — which integrates best practices from business and education to design and manage successful schools and companies — and the School Redesign Network, aimed at producing and spreading the latest research to improve high schools and school districts.

She also has served as faculty sponsor of the Stanford Teacher Education Program, and she is a former president of the American Educational Research Association.

From 1994 to 2001, she was executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, a blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report, "What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future," led to sweeping policy changes affecting teaching and teacher education. The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center in 2006 named this report one of the most influential affecting U.S. education, and it named Darling-Hammond among the nation's 10 most influential people affecting educational policy in the past decade.

Some critics say Darling-Hammond has resisted efforts to shake up public schools such as the Teach for America alternative teacher-certification program; high-stakes testing such as high-school exit exams; and the No Child Left Behind program, which she says has narrowed the U.S. teaching curriculum.

She holds a doctorate in education from Temple University and lives in unincorporated Stanford just off the university's campus.

Christopher Edley

Dean of UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall law school, Edley was a vocal Obama supporter throughout the campaign and could end up in the White House again — he served in the Carter and Clinton administrations.

But Edley, who has advised Obama during his transition and taught the president-elect at Harvard, has said he does not want to move back to Washington.

Edley, who arrived at Boalt in 2004 after 23 years at Harvard, has a range of legal interests. He has taught subjects ranging from national security law to environmental law, and he has written and advised the White House on race issues.

The gregarious dean has been an advocate for higher student fees and better fundraising by public universities.

Without more public funding, public schools will be forced to privatize, he has said.

Maria Echaveste

Boalt Hall lecturer Maria Echaveste, also Edley's wife, was Clinton's deputy chief of staff and is being considered as labor secretary.

But Echaveste supported Hillary Rodham Clinton, so it's not clear whether her experience can overcome her past political allegiance.

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Echaveste was an administrator in the Department of Labor in the 1990s. She has a UC Berkeley law degree.

After leaving the White House, Echaveste cofounded the Nueva Vista Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm. She also serves on the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee.

Steve Heminger

Few outside the transportation world have ever heard of Heminger, the charismatic executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's regional transportation and finance agency.

But that could change if Heminger is named U.S. transportation secretary.

His name has appeared on dozens of Web sites and in news accounts as a contender alongside former FAA director Jane Garvey and former deputy transportation secretary Mortimer Downey.

The 49-year-old San Francisco resident is a key player in an agency that distributes tens of millions of dollars and makes key decisions about the region's roads, bridges and transit systems.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., led a group of prominent officials that sent a letter to Obama endorsing Heminger.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Heminger to a congressional advisory committee that recommended an overhaul of how the nation pays for the transportation system.

The MTC chief executive since 1998, Heminger also worked as MTC's deputy director and its public affairs and legislative manager. His previous job was vice president of the Bay Area Council, a business group vocal about transportation issues.

Heminger has a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, and a master's from the University of Chicago.

Mike Honda

Honda, a Democrat from San Jose, has represented California's 15th Congressional District since 2001, and he hopes to be considered as U.S. secretary of education.

He's a California native, and spent his early childhood in a Colorado internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II.

He served two years in the Peace Corps in El Salvador before starting a 30-year career as an educator, during which he was a science teacher, a principal at two public schools and an educational researcher at Stanford.

He did stints on San Jose's planning commission — appointed by then-Mayor Norm Mineta, who much later wound up as U.S. secretary of transportation — and school board; on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors; and in the state Assembly before his 2000 election to Congress.

Honda, 67, now serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee, which holds the government's purse strings, furthering his advocacy of better funding for education and other issues.

He and Obama in May introduced a bipartisan bill in their respective chambers to make America's students and future labor force more competitive in science-related fields.

Honda is in his second term as the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus' chairman, and he serves as House Democratic Senior Whip responsible for helping to get members in line for crucial votes.

He holds a master's degree in Education from San Jose State University.

Van Jones

Jones cofounded, managed and remains a board member of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, now based in Oakland.

There, he became a nationally renowned advocate for juvenile justice reform, police reform, youth violence prevention and green-collar jobs.

He has not been publicly linked to a particular role but he may be under consideration for a labor or energy post.

Jones launched Green for All, an Oakland-based nonprofit promoting green-collar jobs and opportunities for the disadvantaged.

Green for All's mission is to build an inclusive, green economy that can help curb global warming, lift millions of people out of poverty and reverse the current economic downturn — a theme often repeated by Obama and his transition team.

Jones' new book, "The Green Collar Economy," peaked at No. 12 on The New York Times nonfiction hardcover best-seller list, and it has been praised by the likes of Al Gore and Pelosi.

After New Orleans was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, Jones cofounded Color of Change, a MoveOn.org-like organization aimed at strengthening African-Americans' political voice.

Jones is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C., think-tank that's proving to be a fertile source of policy and personnel for the incoming administration.

Jones is a Tennessee native and Oakland resident. He holds a law degree from Yale and has received several national awards for his work.

Robert Reich

UC Berkeley public policy professor Reich is a former Clinton labor secretary who could end up back in Washington. He already is a member of Obama's economic advisory board.

A former Rhodes scholar, Reich, 62, has written 11 books and at least one play, "Public Exposure."

His book "The Work of Nations" has been translated into 22 languages.

Reich ran unsuccessfully for Massachusetts governor in 2002.

Dan Reicher

A Piedmont resident, Reicher is Google's director of climate change and energy initiatives for Google.org, a division that invests in and advances policy in this and other areas.

He's on various lists as a candidate for U.S. energy secretary although it would undoubtedly be a major pay cut.

On the other hand, when the president of the United States calls and asks you to serve, you probably want to say yes.

Reicher cofounded and served as president of New Energy Capital Corp., a New England-based renewable energy company. Before that, he was executive vice president of Northern Power Systems, the nation's oldest renewable energy company.

During the Clinton administration, Reicher was assistant secretary of energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Earlier, he did stints as Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's chief of staff, as the acting assistant secretary of Energy for Policy, and he was O'Leary's deputy chief of staff and counselor.

And before his careers in business and government, Reicher was a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, focusing on the federal government's energy and nuclear programs as well as environmental law and policy issues in the former Soviet Union.

He holds a law degree from Stanford University and also studied at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Christina Romer

UC Berkeley professor Romer heads the White House Council of Economic Advisers, making her the third UC Berkeley professor to hold the post. Romer follows Clinton appointees Laura Tyson — an Obama economic adviser — and Janet Yellen.

A Berkeley professor for the past 20 years, Romer first taught at Princeton University after receiving her doctorate from MIT in 1985. With her husband, David Romer, she is teaching a course on monetary history this semester.

The couple was nearly lured to Harvard University this year, but Harvard President Drew Faust vetoed the hiring, according to the Harvard student newspaper. The decision brought criticism from Harvard faculty and others.

Mike Thompson

Outdoorsman, vintner and congressman, Rep. Thompson of St. Helena is on the short list for appointment as U.S. secretary of interior, a key position for large western states such as California.

Other top names on the list hail from the West, too, including Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber and former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles.

Thompson has some prominent supporters.

Reps. George Miller, of Martinez, and Anna Eshoo, of Palo Alto, sent a letter to the Obama transition team recommending him. He also has the support of Ducks Unlimited and Wildlife Forever.

Thompson was elected to Congress in 1998 after serving eight years in the state Senate.

A Vietnam War veteran, Thompson sits on the House Ways and Means Committee and is chairman of the House subcommittee on Terrorism, Human Intelligence, Analysis and Counterintelligence.

Tony West

A well-connected partner in the high-powered San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster law firm, West is widely viewed as a likely Obama appointee in the Department of Justice.

A big-time Obama fundraiser, the Oakland resident has served as an assistant attorney under U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and worked for the California Department of Justice.

West is married to Maya Harris West, vice president of peace and social justice for the Ford Foundation, and his sister-in-law is San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.

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