From the New West blog: presidential election

Who Will Lead Interior Under a New President?

By Jill Kuraitis, 10-16-08

The Idaho Statesman’s award-winning columnist Rocky Barker has an excellent review of who might be the next Secretary of the Interior, depending on who wins the presidential race.

This is of particular interest in Idaho because former governor, U.S. senator and (and Boise mayor) Dirk Kempthorne (R) is the current head of Interior, where his reviews have been generally very good.

Barker points out that the agency’s head is the country’s top wildlife manager of “more than 507 million acres of national parks, rangeland and wildlife refuges.”

He would manage more than 600 dams that bring water to 31 million Westerners and irrigate 60 percent of all the vegetables grown in the United States. He would be in charge of the fate of 1,265 threatened or endangered species.
He would be responsible for 68 percent of the nation’s oil and gas reserves and millions of acres of federal mining lands. The next president’s choice for Interior also will sit on the Cabinet, discussing the major issues that face the nation and the world.

What a tall order in these difficult times.

In a McCain administration, Barker muses about whether Kempthorne would stay on:

Kempthorne has helped restore and grow funding for national parks, listed the polar bear as endangered, acknowledged the role of climate change, taken responsibility to clean up MMS and improved employees’ morale. Kempthorne has at least made the case that keeping him on through the transition would allow McCain to focus on the economy and other challenges.

The convictions of Deputy Secretary Steve Griles for his dealings with corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the recent scandal uncovered in the Minerals Management Service and the blatant meddling in scientific decisions on listing endangered species undercut the integrity of the agency that has so much control over the West. All of these happened on the watch of Gale Norton.

Kempthorne has helped restore and grow funding for national parks, listed the polar bear as endangered, acknowledged the role of climate change, taken responsibility to clean up MMS and improved employees’ morale. Kempthorne has at least made the case that keeping him on through the transition would allow McCain to focus on the economy and other challenges.

Other names being suggested for McCain are Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colorado, and Rep. Steve Pearce R-New Mexico.

Under a President Obama, Rep. George Miller, D-California, John Leshy, who worked at Interior when former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus was Secretary of the Interior, and Montana’s governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, are apparently being thrown around.

Washington’s Roll Call has a few other ideas:

Interior Secretary. Obama is thought likely to continue the trend of installing a westerner as interior secretary, especially if he runs strongly in sagebrush states such as Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Napolitano is a possibility if she fails to get AG or DHS, while Wyoming’s Dave Freudenthal (D) would be a contender if he can be persuaded to forgo the wide open spaces for D.C.

It’s also possible that Obama could turn to veteran House Democrats such as Norm Dicks (Wash.), chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, or George Miller (Calif.), a former chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. While both would be hard-pressed to give up plum positions in the Democratic majority, they may wish to cap their careers with a Cabinet job.

Western publication High Country News takes a look at who might serve under both men in “What the election means for the Interior Department.”

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