(Updated) McDonnell makes appointments; Drake to be Sec. of Transportation?
By JR Hoeft | Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | Policy*** Update ***
Drake says she’s not considering becoming the next Secretary of Transportation.
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Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell made several political appointments today, including the much anticipated “Jobs Creation Officer” proposed for Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling during the campaign. Bolling is set to become what McDonnell says is “the busiest Lieutenant Governor in America.”
Longtime McDonnell confidante and political adviser, Janet Polarek, will become the Secretary of the Commonwealth and Richmond businessman Robert Sledd will be Secretary of Commerce and Trade.
Bolling will be expected to chair the soon-to-be-created Job Creation and Economic Opportunity Task Force and the Job Creation Work Group, which coordinates many of the activities across the cabinet with respect to jobs. Speaking about Bolling’s responsibilities, McDonnell said, “Bill will coordinate economic development and job creation initiatives occurring in Virginia government and lead our efforts to recruit businesses to Virginia, all without any additional compensation.”
The Secretary of Commonwealth position most notably assists in determining who is appointed to boards and commissions, as well as commissioning notaries.
The Secretary of Commerce and Trade “oversees the economic, community, and workforce development of the Commonwealth.”
Additionally, rumors are flying that former U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake is being considered to replace Pierce Homer as Virginia’s next Secretary of Transportation – an extremely important position as that department sets Virginia’s transportation initiatives and has been one of the commonwealth’s top political issues in recent elections.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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8 Responses to "(Updated) McDonnell makes appointments; Drake to be Sec. of Transportation?"
Thelma isn’t qualified at all.
Master Chief,
Have to agree. Wasn’t she a Realtor before getting into politics. She never showed any particular knowledge of transportation issues in the General Assembly or the Congress.
Master Chief and Steve, while I certainly agree that Thelma Drake doesn’t have credentials that one would expect for such a job, I have to consider the transportation mess that we are in now. After all…..it is being run by highly qualified people that STILL do a horrible job.
Everybody tells us we need more taxes because transportation is so horrific right? So who is in charge? Let’s change how things are currently done since we know the system is broken. Its time for another set of eyes. Eyes from a differing perspective.
Being from Real Estate, I disagree that Thelma likely knows nothing about transportation. Transportation does affect real estate, does it not? Thelma being from the 2nd district would hopefully, bring a 2nd district view of things to the job.
No, she’s not perfect, but she couldn’t do any worse. I mean, the big government types keep telling us how horrible transportation is now. Evidently, your local grocery bagger could do better. We are in the midst of a transportation emergency. We know this because “top of their field” administrators and politicians keep telling us this, year after year. Let’s take them at their word and fire everyone involved based on gross incompetence.
So I guess a HOD member and a Congresswomen who sat on the TRANSPORTATION committee of both of these legislatures is not qualified to be Secretary of Transportion?
The next Secretary of Transportation needs to be a magician. That is, this person will be required to restore funding to local governments, open the closed rest stops, restore public funding to the PPV’s that would have gone forward but did not for lack of public dollars, increase maintenance around the Commonwealth, fund interstate projects in Hampton Roads and other parts of the state, increase state match funding so we don’t lose our Federal share of our own gas taxes, all with a tax structure that produces less than 50% of the purchasing power it had when last increased in 1986. Further, the current plan is to fund transportation increases from the General Fund which now faces about a $3,000,000,000 shortfall in the next budget cycle. Still want the job, former Delegate Drake?
Yeah Mike – just like the next Board for SPSA will have to be a magician to undo the MESS you made! LOL!
ROFL! You have to love it: Reid has the chutzpah to try to go for points on Mike and SPSA.
On December 8 the Virginia Beach City Council held a Public Hearing on the revised agreement with SPSA. Number of speakers: zero. That’s right: for all that Reid and his fellow VBTAers love to run their mouths about SPSA and Mike, not one of them showed uo for the Public Hearing.
Just more empty political posturing by the extremist VBTA.
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