No sooner had Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., and President-elect Barack Obama made their announcements that the New Mexico governor would be stepping aside because of a pay-to-play controversy swirling around him, than advocacy groups sprang to action to get their respective candidates considered.
“The good news is, there are lots of Latinos out there to be considered,” says Brent Wilkes, the League of United Latin American Citizens’ executive director. “We’ve sent quite a few names to the transition team already for commerce [secretary].”
Gay rights advocates, who were disappointed about the lack of openly gay people among Obama’s cabinet picks, now have new hope.
Advocates wanted Obama to become the first president in U.S. history to give a cabinet position to a gay person. Executive director of labor advocacy organization American Rights at Work Mary Beth Maxwell and director of the Smithsonian National Zoo John Berry were two openly gay candidates on the short list for cabinet positions; but Obama ultimately passed them over in favor of others.
Obama did name Nancy Sutley as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, but none to a full cabinet position.
Gay rights advocates are holding out hope, yet again, that Obama might still appoint another openly gay person. “With the vacancy of Governor Bill Richardson as the nominee for secretary of commerce, President-elect Obama is presented with yet another opportunity to make good on his promise of equality for all LGBT people,” Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese tells Diverse.
The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund provided names of qualified openly gay people to work in Obama’s administration, but spokesman Denis Dison says they do not have a specific person they are pushing as a nominee to replace Richardson.
