Charlotte Mayor Rumored Next Transportation Secretary

Rumor is circulating that Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx is on the short list to be the next U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Foxx, 41, decided not to seek a third term as mayor of the Queen City, saying he didn’t want to be “mayor for life.” He did not say what he will do once he leaves the mayor’s office.

Foxx’s decision comes as the city of Charlotte is involved in discussions over the future of its airport, football stadium, and a neighborhood-improvement plan that includes a controversial streetcar. As President Barack Obama forms his second-term cabinet, he has open slots at the departments of Commerce, the U. S. Office of Trade, and the Small Business Administration. The Secretary of Transportation supervises a $70 billion budget, 55,000 employees, and is the point man for billions of dollars of grant funding for highways, airports, and trains.

Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, whose family built the Hyatt  Hotels Corp., and who is listed as one of Forbes 400 richest Americans with an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion, is a frontrunner for Commerce Secretary and has made the screening process a little complicated, according to people familiar with the process.  Pritzker was Obama’s National Finance Chair for his 2008 presidential campaign.

Mike Froman, Assistant to the President and the U. S. National Security Advisor for International Economics, became the leading candidate to replace Ambassador Ron Kirk as U.S. Trade Representative after Obama asked acting budget director Jeff Zients to stay at the Office of Management and Budget. Francisco J. Sanchez, currently Under-Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, is another possibility for the trade job.

Obama has been under pressure to add diversity to his cabinet after filling ten vacancies with white men over a period of a few months at the end of his first term. Congressional Democratic Black Caucus Chair Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) sent Obama a letter criticizing his choices so far by saying, “The people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity.” Fudge advanced the names of Reps. Mel Watts (D-NC), Jim Clyburn (D-SC), and Barbara Lee (D-CA) to be considered for cabinet positions.