This time with cabinet picks….
Hispanic groups and lawmakers expressed surprise and some anger Thursday at how New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has been treated by President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team.
Lujan Grisham was offered but rejected a Cabinet position as Biden’s Interior Department secretary, a transition team source told The Hill on Wednesday. Advocacy groups had been pushing her for Health and Human Services secretary.
It’s possible the New Mexico governor is still in the mix for that position, particularly after Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo on Thursday publicly said she was no longer up for that role.
But lawmakers and other supporters of Lujan Grisham expressed surprise that the Biden team would leak that she had been offered and rejected a different Cabinet role.
“I’m just kind of confused, it throws all of us off,” said Paul Martinez, who serves on the board of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which had pushed for Lujan Grisham to get the HHS slot and were unaware she was being considered for Interior.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus “laid into the transition team” during a virtual meeting Thursday for the way Lujan Grisham was treated, according to a source familiar with the discussion….
Blacks are also on the Biden case about cabinets spots…
The heads of legacy civil rights groups say they are struggling to participate in President-elect Joe Biden’s transition, vying to be included as the incoming administration tries to make good on a promise to Black voters to be the most diverse in history.
Prominent civil rights advocates say they haven’t been consulted about key cabinet picks and are frustrated they haven’t met with Biden since the election.
“We aren’t asking for some kind of veto, we are asking for some kind of consultation,” said Marc Morial, head of the National Urban League. “We are still in a wait-and-see mode, but we think that the civil rights community should be more closely engaged.”
Biden selected Sen. Kamala Harris to be his running mate, and she will become the nation’s first Black vice president, in addition to being the first woman and Asian American to hold the job….
Note…
Outspoken minority cabinet picks WILL have trouble being confirmed if the Republicans hold the majority in the US Senate after Jan.5th….
image…Getty
Eh.
Par for the course.
One thing about Democratic politics that has bothered me for a long time is this excessive effort to create a cabinet that is representative of everyone. If a candidate just chooses the best people, it will be a diverse cabinet, certainly over time. It is not as if a black, Latino, woman, gay or Catholic person in a cabinet role per se is going to have any material effect on the lives of these minorities. It will be the policies they develop.
If there are two equal candidates for a cabinet spot and one group is under-represented, then yes it makes sense to give that role with the person for the inter-represented group. This is how it is and should be in business too, because perceptions are not always fair, and they need to be recognized. But it is troubling to me that it seems more of the conversation is about balancing minority representation in Democratic politics than in choosing the best nominee.
Z?
Your view is a common sense one…
But the fact is black, brown or yellow people of equal smarts do NOT get in the door to compete on the higher levels of business and government…
Barack Obama did NOT run as a ‘Black/Mixed race President…
He ran as President that happened to BE that…
In America as in other places race IS the 800 pound Gorilla standing in the background…
Jack is closer to things that most of us and I understand why he sometimes is a strident as he is on this subject…
But it IS everywhere….
Even in NYC and it’s metro area the ‘Trumpism’ features some Confederate flags on front lawns and vehicle bumpers…
Joe Biden won South Carolina on the strength OF the Black vote….
He lost Florida on the strength of the Hispanic vote….
He won Georgia on the Black AND White Suburban vote…
Biden HAS to be carful in his choices….
It is no coincidence that Susan Rice has been excluded from his admin….
Another Black intelligent powerful woman….
My reaction to Harris for VP was based on her ‘meanness’….
Biden did me wrong and picked her taking with the pick the throw downs that Trump and others threw at HER not him….
Z?
If there is qualified minority Biden should pick that person…
The reality is that IF Democrats do NOT pick up the two Georgia Us Senate seats?
The Republicans will have a say in Biden’s choices and they will revert back to who they tend to be ….
All that said?
GOPer’s ARE adding MORE minority candidates
But it sure must be weird for Jack’s junior US Senator
GOP Sweeps In Texas Shows Hispanic Support for GOP
National Review: “Republicans swept key races for mayor in Texas on Saturday, setting back Democratic hopes that the state’s urban areas will deliver statewide majorities for them in the future. Most shocking: In McAllen, Texas, a border city of 150,000 people of which 85 percent are Hispanic, Republicans elected their first mayor ever.”