The Associated Press is reporting that they have two Democratic sources that say President-elect Obama will nominate former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as the Secretary of Agriculture, the department that oversees the U.S. Forest Service. Obama is expected to make the announcement on Wednesday.
On November 30, 2006 Vilsack became the first candidate to announce that he was running for the Democratic nomination for president but dropped out a few months later after receiving lukewarm support. In March, 2007 Hillary Clinton bought Vilsack’s endorsement in exchange for Clinton assuming his $400,000 campaign debt and appointing his wife Christie as the co-chair of Clinton’s campaign in Iowa. *sigh*
Vilsack has no record on the topic of wildland fire that we could discover after a brief Google search.
He was one of the three names that Wildfire Today reported as possibilities for the position on November 5, along with Tom Buis and Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD). By the way, yesterday Sandlin gave birth to her first child, Zachary Lars Sandlin. Congratulations Representative Sandlin.