Source: Charlotte mayor to be nominated for transportation secretary

[Tx4obama]

Source: CNN

(CNN) – President Barack Obama will tap Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday to become his next transportation secretary, a White House official with knowledge of his decision said Sunday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would replace Ray LaHood, who said in January he wouldn’t serve a second term. Foxx, first elected mayor in 2009, helped lead last summer’s Democratic National Convention in the Queen City.

He also championed the completion of an additional runway at the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, though Foxx doesn’t have any specific experience as a transportation executive.

"As mayor of one of America’s most vibrant cities, Anthony Foxx knows firsthand that investing in world-class infrastructure is vital to creating good jobs and ensuring American businesses can grow and compete in the global economy," the White House official said.

Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/28/source-charlotte-mayor-to-be-nominated-for-transportation-secretary/

[Brickbat]

1. "Foxx doesn’t have any specific experience as a transportation executive."

Gosh, put him in charge of the department, then!

[PSPS]

16. Yeah, that jumped out at me too. So, this is just another crony appointment/reward.

These things don't disappoint me as much as they did four years ago because I've since come to the conclusion that Obama is mostly a charlatan. So my expectations are very low.

Perhaps we'll elect a worthwhile president in 2016 although, with Obama's knack for disappointing his base and dissipating that enthusiasm, we'll likely have a republican house and senate after the 2014 mid-terms. He lost us the house in 2010 the same way.

[graham4anything]

17. What's funny about anti-President Obama things is-

If he hires someone who is quite able to do the job (ala Ben) people rail at him
If he hires someone same people think isn't up for the job, he gets railed at too

Whatever President Obama wants is 100% okay with me.
Working to keep his agenda forever and ever and ever

if those that don't like him don't like it, then it's even better, but not required.
Kudo's to President Obama for a great pick.

May one day Eric Holder be elevated to the US Supreme Court, and May Janet Napolitano become VP between 2017-25 with President Clinton.

[awoke_in_2003]

21. "May one day Eric Holder be elevated to the US Supreme Court"...

please pass whatever you are smoking.

[rhett o rick]

27. You arent fooling anyone. nm

[graham4anything]

30. Working for an 80-20 America. Which is what Americans have continually said they wanted.

the 50-50 is a myth purported time and again by those with angles who want to keep people thinking its 50-50 because the silent majority is not outshouting the vocal very small minority.

80-20 and beyond.

[SaveAmerica]

23. Take a look at what Foxx has done transportation-wise for Charlotte in

the short time he's been Mayor then decide if it's just another crony appointment. I'm pretty sure Obama didn't look around and decide to 'pick that cat who looks like me' to be his Secretary of Trans.


President Obama is a worthwhile President and this part of his base is not disappointed. And *he* didn't lose the house in '10, losers who didn't go vote lost the house in '10.

[Tx4obama]

20. See comment #18 n/t

[SpartanDem]

29. So you must hate the job Lahood has done?

[octoberlib]

2. Congrats to my Mayor!

He's a Progressive and a lawyer for a hybrid bus firm.

[enlightenment]

3. How nice.

Another political appointment. It would be really nice if they would hire people who actually know something about the job . . .

[Brickbat]

5. Agreed. I was hoping for Oberstar, myself.

[OKNancy]

6. Are you familiar with the mayor?

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Tx4obama]

19. See comment #18 n/t

[elleng]

4. Few if any Transportation Secretaries I recall had transportation experience.

Ability to manage large bureaucracies is important.

The first Secretary of Transportation was Alan Stephenson Boyd, nominated to the post by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. Ronald Reagan's second Secretary of Transportation, Elizabeth Dole, was the first female holder, and Mary Peters was the second. Gerald Ford's nominee William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. was the first African American to serve as Transportation Secretary, and Federico Peña, serving under Bill Clinton, was the first Hispanic to hold the position, subsequently becoming Secretary of Energy. Japanese American Norman Mineta, who had previously been Secretary of Commerce, is the longest-serving Secretary, holding the post for over five and a half years,[2] and Andrew Card is the shortest-serving Secretary, serving only eleven months. Neil Goldschmidt was the youngest secretary, taking office at age thirty-nine, while Norman Mineta was the oldest, retiring at age seventy-four.[4] On January 23, 2009, the sixteenth and current secretary Ray LaHood took office, serving under the administration of Democrat Barack Obama; he had previously been a Republican Congressman from Illinois for fourteen years.[5]

[OKNancy]

7. It doesn't matter.

Some people will complain, knee-jerk, and whine about anything this administration does.

[elleng]

8. Right, of course, Nancy.

Had to comment, as I worked in the transportation bureaucracy for 20+ years so I DO know something about it!

[Bluenorthwest]

10. And yet your insightful comment was cut and pasted from Wikipedia

The first Secretary of Transportation was Alan Stephenson Boyd, nominated to the post by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. Ronald Reagan's second Secretary of Transportation, Elizabeth Dole, was the first female holder, and Mary Peters was the second. Gerald Ford's nominee William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. was the first African American to serve as Transportation Secretary, and Federico Peña, serving under Bill Clinton, was the first Hispanic to hold the position, subsequently becoming Secretary of Energy. Japanese American Norman Mineta, who had previously been Secretary of Commerce, is the longest-serving Secretary, holding the post for over five and a half years,[2] and Andrew Card is the shortest-serving Secretary, serving only eleven months. Neil Goldschmidt was the youngest secretary, taking office at age thirty-nine, while Norman Mineta was the oldest, retiring at age seventy-four.[4] On January 23, 2009, the sixteenth and current secretary Ray LaHood took office, serving under the administration of Democrat Barack Obama; he had previously been a Republican Congressman from Illinois for fourteen years.[5] The salary of the Secretary of Transportation is $199,700.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Transportation

I left the line in about the salary.

[elleng]

11. So? What are you saying?

My comment was not meant to be insightful but informative.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. I guess it was the snark fest directed at others coupled with the 'I worked there for years'

and the other poster insisting that even your experience would not convince the awful critics. Yes, such horrid people who are not impressed by wikis into bowing to your opinion.
Our transportation system is one of the worst in the developed world. Repeating the same things that made that sad fact true is not a good idea. That's my opinion after over 50 years trying to catch a fucking train in the US. Whatever we are doing we are not doing well. No offense to you or others at your agency. Appointing some guy you like to be in charge is not helping us.
I'd like personally to see a Transportation Sec who has at least heard of the West Coast. Who cares about rail and roads and not just getting promoted. Charlotte at least has some public transportation, I'll give the man that much. At least they have some light rail.

[elleng]

14. 'Snark fest?'

[Bluenorthwest]

9. And our transportation system, the worst among our peer nations might be a refection of that

less than serious attitude in appointing the Sec. Or perhaps our rail and roads are shameful and outdated purely by coincidence but it is still not much of an argument for 'more of the same' in transportation.

[elleng]

12. You might recognize that our country and its consequent needs for infrastructure

is larger than most of our 'peer' nations; that our rail freight system is excellent and largely tended by private rail carriers who told the government years ago that they couldn't afford to continue passenger transportation which is very labor intensive and expensive for the providers; that public passenger rail is maintained in the corridors where it is heavily supported by the public; and that cost of maintaining road/bridge/etc infrastructure is regularly declined by CONGRESS and has been for years.

[phleshdef]

28. That particular problem likely has jack shit to do with transportation secretaries.

That's a problem with Congress and state Governors. We funded some HUGE high speed rail projects that could have easily been the beginning of a backbone for a national system and we had like 3-4 Republican state governors axe the projects. My state of Ohio was a victim of this. Kasich killed our rail the first day he stepped into office.

On top of that, Congress has been neglecting overall infrastructure spending for ages now. Its not like President Obama hasn't been proposing more infrastructure spending every single year, he has. They aren't budging.

Cabinet members are more about managing what we have in place, not driving the direction for new developments. The people that have served as Transportation Secretary are not the people that have been holding us back.

[alp227]

24. E. Dole, also from NC, didn't have experience in transportation OR labor.

She graduated in 1958, and followed that with post-graduate work at Oxford in 1959. After Oxford, she took a job as a student teacher at Melrose High School in Melrose, Massachusetts for the 1959–1960 school year.[6] While teaching, she also pursued her master's degree in education from Harvard University, which she earned in 1960, followed by a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965. She is an alumna of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and was recognized for being their leading orchid grower several times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Dole

http://web.archive.org/web/20080924202430/http://www.elizabethdole.org/docs/pages/On-to-College.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20080924203237/http://www.elizabethdole.org/docs/pages/Working-for-the-People.html

Her Senate campaign bio says she was a lawyer after getting her JD from Harvard. In 1967 she joined Pres. Johnson's cabinet. In 1973, Pres. Nixon nominated Dole to the FTC. Nothing directly relevant to transportation or labor I can find in her biography.

[elleng]

25. Quite right.

[madrchsod]

15. that sucks....lahood is from illinois

he gave us walkers rail money that he turned down.

[Tx4obama]

18. "... work he had done on Charlotte's transit system, including streetcar and light-rail projects."

-snip-

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will name Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx as his next Secretary of the Department of Transportation, sources familiar with the administration’s planning told The Huffington Post. The decision is expected to come this week.

Foxx, whose profile rose when his city hosted the Democratic National Convention last summer, announced in early April that he would be leaving office at the end of this year. His name had already been floated as a possible pick for transportation secretary, owing to the work he had done on Charlotte's transit system, including streetcar and light-rail projects.

-snip-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/28/anthony-foxx-transportation-secretary_n_3174904.html

[SaveAmerica]

26. A quick search brought this up, Charlotte is the fastest growing

city in NC and has a mess of traffic that goes with it.

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/cats/planning/ble/Pages/default.aspx

On Tuesday, October 16, 2012, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Administrator Peter Rogoff, City of Charlotte Mayor Foxx, Metropolitan Transit Commission Chair Harold Cogdell, CATS CEO Carolyn Flowers and state and local leaders celebrated the receipt of a Federal Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) for the BLE. The Federal FFGA will provide 50 percent of the project costs for the BLE and is the last major funding source needed to advance the project towards construction.

[davidpdx]

22. As president Obama said the other day

CNN covers every side of the story, just in case one of them happens to be right.