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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Richardson Withdrawal Hurts Obama’s Southwest Strategy

WASHINGTON — The withdrawal of Gov. Bill Richardson’s nomination as Commerce secretary was more than just a jolt to President-elect Barack Obama’s otherwise smooth transition. It was a setback for a less-remarked-on but politically significant aspect of the selection of Mr. Obama’s cabinet — the extent to which it reflects a marked attempt to consolidate Democratic gains in the Southwest, a crucial political target for Democrats as the party takes control of the White House.

Mr. Obama’s advisers said that where cabinet officials came from was not the main factor in making these selections. But they said it certainly was one, an extension of the effort by Mr. Obama in the campaign to take advantage of changing demographic patterns to move states like Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada into the Democratic column.

“We are conscious of the political and demographic changes in the political Southwest, and these appointments are a reflection of the growing importance of the Southwest to the Democratic Party,” said Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s designated chief of staff. “It is not the reason they were made: But we are conscious of the benefits that can come from it.”

Mr. Richardson, of New Mexico, was one of three prominent elected officials from that part of the country chosen for cabinet positions, joining Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Mr. Obama’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, and Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, his choice to be Interior secretary. Mr. Richardson withdrew in the face of a federal grand jury investigation into state corruption that he said risked slowing his confirmation at a time when Mr. Obama wants to move urgently to address the deteriorating economy; there is no indication that either of the other two nominations face any trouble.

In an interview, Mr. Emanuel was quick to rattle off — apparently from memory — all the gains that Democrats had made in Congressional and Senate seats in that section of the country over the past four years. And in November, in one of the more politically significant outcomes of the election, Mr. Obama won Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico after making a huge effort there. And there is reason to believe that he might have won Arizona as well, were it not for the fact that his opponent was Senator John McCain of Arizona.

There is a regional logic to the picks. As Interior secretary, Mr. Salazar will be in a position of obvious interest to Western states like Colorado, and can draw on long experience with land and conservation issues. Ms. Napolitano’s experience as a border state governor could serve her and the new administration well when it comes to one of the most politically sensitive issues in her portfolio as Homeland Security chief, illegal immigration.

Mr. Emanuel disputed the notion that the Richardson withdrawal represented a setback to this strategy. But Mr. Emanuel would give no clue about who the incoming Obama administration might be considering for the post, much less what part of the country the new nominee would come from.

More than that, he would not entertain questions about whether the Obama administration’s eagerness to get Mr. Richardson into the Obama cabinet might have contributed to what appeared to be an uncharacteristic laxness in what has, for the most part, been a very rigorous and disciplined vetting operation.

The existence of the grand jury investigation in New Mexico was hardly a secret, and Mr. Richardson’s view of it — that he was not implicated in the investigation in any way — has not changed. The sop-to-the-Southwest angle was just one of several reasons why Mr. Obama might have been eager to get Mr. Richardson into the cabinet: Mr. Richardson is Hispanic and gave Mr. Obama a crucial endorsement during the primary process.

And Mr. Obama was putting him in a position — Commerce secretary — that has frequently been used to pay back political supporters; Mr. Richardson had hoped to be tapped to be secretary of State. (One interesting tidbit: had Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won the White House, her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, had made clear that Commerce was the job he would have wanted; her husband, Bill Clinton, gave it to his Democratic National Committee chairman, Ron Brown.)

Whatever happens now with the post, there is perhaps no better indication of how this new White House perceived the changing political map than to compare the Southwest with the South, the most Republican part of the country these days. There is, at least, arguably, just one cabinet nominee from the South — Ron Kirk, the United States Trade Representative. And Mr. Kirk is from Texas (which culturally is at least as much a part of the Southwest as of the Deep South) and the Trade Rep is not exactly a top-tier cabinet member.

“While some have said, ‘Where is the South in the Cabinet?,’ I have said, ‘Look what we have done in the Southwest!’” Mr. Emanuel said. “And that says a lot about what was done here.”

An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly that Governor Napolitano had been nominated to be attorney general.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/us/politics/06web-nagourney.html?_r=1

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