The NY Times reports the choice will be announced Thursday. Both WaPo & Bloomberg are reporting the choice will be announced Friday:
Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican known for his willingness to criticize his own party and to work with Democrats, is likely to be named by President-elect Barack Obama as his choice for transportation secretary, according to a person familiar with the selection.
LaHood, 63, whose district includes the headquarters of Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar Inc., has known Obama for more than a decade and is close to Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman designated by the president-elect as White House chief of staff. He is retiring from Congress this year after serving seven terms.
More from Bloomberg:
In Congress, LaHood’s record is one of a centrist, willing to cast votes that crossed partisan lines. He voted in favor of raising vehicle fuel economy standards and co-sponsored legislation, with Emanuel, to extend health insurance to those without it. Yet he also has supported his party on core issues, such as putting up a fence along the U.S. border with Mexico and extending a program allowing wiretaps without warrants.
The National Journal rated his votes in Congress as 54 percent conservative and 46 percent liberal on economic issues in 2005.
Bloomberg erroneously claims this would be "the 2nd Republican" in Obama's administration pointing to Robert Gates as the first. They might be excused for their error as it has been parroted by Tweety and innumerable others in the TradMed who refuse to acknowledge that Gates is a lifelong Independent who has never been registered Republican.
However, with that said, based on comments in this thread, (also here) I can only imagine that people around here might start buying industrial-strength umbrellas to combat the falling sky after this pick. Our beloved Kossack dengre has a concern, but is hopeful that this guy's not of the evil ilk of goopers. It's been a rough hayride with donut-flinging goodness with the Salazar & Vilsack picks topped by the announcement about the fundy whackjob who is giving the invocation at the inauguration.
More about LaHood from Yahoo
LaHood was part of the Republican revolution in 1994 that saw his party win control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years.
Democrats won back the House in 2006 and LaHood decided not to run for re-election this year, telling Reuters in an interview, "It's not any fun being in the minority."
LaHood has had a good working relationship with assistant Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois, who served as national co-chairman of Obama's presidential campaign.
From WaPo:
Kenneth P. Quinn, a former Federal Aviation Administration chief counsel who now is a partner at the Pillsbury law firm, hailed LaHood as an "outstanding bipartisan pick for the new president."
"But he's going to be facing extremely daunting challenges in the industry, particularly in aviation, to restore badly strained labor management relations at the FAA," Quinn said. "At the same time, he'll have to effectively modernize our air traffic control system and deal with very pressing competition and congestion problems."
Not much is known about his view on all things transport, from what I glean from the google. There's this however:
The moderate Republican has broken with his party over Amtrak funding, voting yes last summer to expand passenger rail service. In 2005, he told the Peoria Journal-Star that "we’ve got a good Amtrak system in Illinois and I don’t think we want to destroy it by talking about privatization." In 2006, he received a 66 percent rating from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a major transportation construction lobby. He also voted in favor of the Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act of 2008, a bill to promote increased public transportation use that garnered string bi-partisan support.
We all knew there would be Republicans in the cabinet. I'm counting one (1). Maybe a couple more if you count Gates & NSA head James Jones. And yes, some very "centrist" Dems like Vilsack.
Let us learn the facts about these people, and write more fact-based blog posts (like OrangeClouds115's from yesterday) about them to "keep an eye on things".
Otherwise, let's try to be civil & mature about this all like no drama Obama would ask. There is work to do. Not worrying or complaining. Work.