by Jose de la Isla
Federico Peña
President-elect Barack Obama’s transition to the White House is off to a fast start. Two days after the election, three associates close to Obama were chosen as the leaders of the transition team. Not one is Hispanic.
By week’s end 12 members of his transition “advisory board” were announced.
Obama-insider and nationaicampaign co-chair Federico Pena was selected as the one Hispanic in the dozen. Pena had served President Bill Clinton as Secretary of Transportation and, later, Energy. A former two-term mayor of Denver, he was one of the frst big-name Hispanics to endorse Obama in his primary battle with Hillary Clinton.
Additionally, the 13 key transition staff leadership positions were filled to direct policy and appointments through the team’s day to-day activities. None were Hispanic.
The President-elect’s transition network is mostly made up of volunteers and, based on past history, might include up to 1,000 members It will be headquartered in office space set up for 500 people at a nondescript office building in downtown Washington, D.C.
The “Qbama-Biden Transition Project,’’ the advisory board to deal with strategies to rescue the economy, includes Roel Campos, a former Security and Exchange Commissioner, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Also serving on this team are such notable financial and economic policy advisors as Robert Rubin, Warren Buffett and Paul Volcker.
Joined by Vice-President-elect Joe Biden, Obama met with that team Nov. 7, prior to his fi rst post-election press conference.
The team will be incorporated into the planned White House economic summit Nov. 14 with the G-20, which will include Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for the first time. Spain is home base to two of the world’s top 20 banks.
Former Federal Communications Commissioner Henry Rivera, now a partner with Washington, D.C., law fi rm Wiley Rein, will reportedly take charge of Obama’s FCC transition team. His name drew immediate outrage from right-wing talk-radio hosts as a step toward dismantling commercial talk radio and renewal of consideration for a “Fairness Doctrine.”
The Associated Press reported Nov. 6 University of Texas at Brownsville president Juliet García would soon join Obama’s transition team.
The bulk of the transition work will be done by the advisory boards comprised of subteams which are underway at every government agency identifying their issues.
Team members will likely fi ll many of the appointed positions. Janet Napolitano, an advisory board member, has been mentioned as a candidate for Attorney General.
Temo Figueroa, who spearheaded Obama’s victorious national Latino election strategy, told Weekly Report that getting elected was only part of the job. He reminded this reporter that the effort was for “ensuring all the work pays off for our community.”
Prior administrations have been slow in identifying Hispanics for key assignments. Obama’s does not yet stand out in this respect, either. Hispanic Link.
