Hyatt heiress and chief Obama fundraiser Penny Pritzker this afternoon sent out at email to withdraw her name from consideration for Secretary of Commerce, according to the WSJ's Washington Wire.
The apparent reason for her withdrawal, and this is an inference, is her past position as chair of Superior Bank, which was an early leader in securitizing subprime mortages and failed in 2001.
According to Washington Wire:
Superior collapsed and was seized by federal regulators in 2001. Government investigators and consumer advocates have said that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices.
"Pritzker was never accused of wrongdoing; and the Obama campaign has noted that her family paid $460 million to defray the costs of Superior’s collapse," but that probably would make it hard for her to get confirmed.
Too bad, because, again according to Washington Wire, her resume suggests she may be unusually well qualified to meet one of the biggest challenges the Commerce Department will face in the next 18 months, conduct the 2010 Census.
The next census will incorporate major changes from prior censuses, the biggest since at least 1940, plans to use hand-held data collection devices had to be scrapped due to a badly written set of specifications for the software, and the immigration crackdown is very likely to reduce responses by many immigrant communities. To top of the list of concerns, career leaders at the Bureau recently resigned because of a lack of support by the Administration, and their replacement does not appear to be up to the job.
Which brings me back to Penny Pritzker's resume. Again according to Washington Wire:
As the presidential campaign’s finance chairman, Pritzker was a taskmaster, routinely whipping her top fund-raisers to produce at levels many said they had never produced at before.
Not to mention that she raised more than $640 million for the Obama campaign.
She sounds like she would have been a great pick to oversee the Census Bureau and make sure we get an accurate population count in 2010. It's a shame that she has subprime baggage.