Charlotte mayor to be nominated for transportation secretary
(CNN) – President Barack Obama will tap Anthony Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Monday to become his next transportation secretary, a White House official with knowledge of his decision said Sunday.
If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would replace Ray LaHood, who said in January he wouldn’t serve a second term. LaHood has said he will remain in his post until a successor is confirmed.
Foxx, first elected mayor in 2009, helped lead last summer’s Democratic National Convention in the Queen City.
He also championed the completion of an additional runway at the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, though Foxx doesn’t have any specific experience as a transportation executive. Earlier this month, Foxx announced he wouldn’t seek re-election at Charlotte’s mayor.
"As mayor of one of America’s most vibrant cities, Anthony Foxx knows firsthand that investing in world-class infrastructure is vital to creating good jobs and ensuring American businesses can grow and compete in the global economy," the White House official said.
Foxx will be the first African-American Cabinet nominee of Obama’s second term. Currently, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is the only African-American to lead a Cabinet agency.
The initial Cabinet picks of Obama’s second term - Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew – were all white men. After receiving criticism for the lack of diversity, Obama named several women to prominent roles, including Sylvia Mathews Burwell as director of his budget office and Mary Schapiro as the chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Criticism of Obama’s second-term Cabinet picks arose during Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when comedian Conan O’Brien joked that the president’s hair was “so white, it could be a member of your Cabinet.”
CNN's Jessica Yellin and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
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When will the president name a new secretary of commerce? That's a position that's been filled by an acting secretary for quite some time now.
It's FLIP WILSON!!!!!
The initial Cabinet picks of Obama’s second term – Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew – were all white men.
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Again, this doesn't bother me. Just like all of us, picking people we work well with is priority #1 and Cabinet members are no different.
I welcome his pick of Mr. Foxx. Now lets sit back and listen to the racist rants of the TPers once again to a qualified person of color.
wonderful... so appoint a totally unqualified person just because he is black and fills a quota. and we wonder why this country is a wreck? ere their no qualified candidates that want to serve in the obama adminstration? it looks like obama wants nothing but unqualified yes men.
Anthony Foxx has a drivers license which makes him more qualified for his post than any of George W. Bush's appointments over two terms.
Congratulations , he will be great for the job .
Obama, is a racist.
Zero experience. Fantastic! I guess the only qualification is to be a loyal party bureaucrat.
Another loser who will fit right in!
so it's not the content of one's character but the color of one's skin that is important to the LibDem Progressives..... hmm.... Dr. King's teachings are surely missed, mostly by those who's reverence of him is a canard.
Live and Learn ....
AG Eric Holder was a Deputy AG under Janet Reno. That experience made him one of the highest qualified people to be AG this time. He could walk into the Dept of Justice and "know where the light switches were". His experience & confidence in his job is the primary reason the rightwing Teapublicans try so hard to get at him. I`m proud of the calm, cool & collected composure he displays day in and day out.
Don`t know this Foxx character but I hope this Sec of Transportation role opens up BIGGER jobs for him in a subsequent administration. Similarly, I hope Kamala Harris, Susan Rice and a whole NextGen slate of black, latino & Asians are being put into the pipeline like AG Holder was. There are Federal judiciary, the ATF Director, and other slots that are vacate Mr. President. Fill them and create a strong bench as part of your legacy.
We don't need him here in Charlotte Washington is where he belongs with all the other Obama cronies spend what you don't have and raise taxes so you can try and get what you want not the people.
Foxx would have never won re-election anyway.
"world-class infrastructure", eh?
So I guess Foxx will help spread the sorry state of Charlotte's roads and political boondoggles like his light rail schemes nation wide.
Oh, and the political infighting over the airport, from which he is walking away will likely be his model for, well, for doing nothing but apple polishing, as usual.
Who cares what sex or color people are? It's experience that matters, and here's another nomination based on anything but.
Anthony Foxx is neither experienced nor qualifred to become a Transportation Secretary. This is clearly a political favor from one brother to anoher brother.
Glad to see him go. The amount of money he loves to spend on street cars and stadiums is obscene. At least this way, we can spread the bill around to all you folks all over the country.
President Obama is the most corrupt politician America has ever elected.
Even when the President appoints or tries to appoint a white republican to a position in his administration, the confederate right wing extremists complain. Hey, we don't give a crap what you people think or say. Please go and seceed!
All politics aside, even though I like Mr. Foxx I personallt believe Sara Palin is more qualified for the job. After all, she can see Russia from Wasalla and she don't even need to get on the Siberian express!