Unions back Porcari for DOT
Source: Politico
UNIONS CHIME IN ON BIDEN’S DOT CHOICE: Several major transportation unions are lining up behind a candidate for President-elect Joe Biden’s DOT. As our team reported on Friday, John Porcari, a former deputy secretary of Transportation, is a favorite of transpo labor. Most notable was a direct endorsement from Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson, which came Friday evening. “He’s the most experienced and most ready to lead us forward,” Nelson told POLITICO.
The resume: Porcari led Maryland’s Department of Transportation, twice, before taking on a job in the Obama administration as the number two to Ray LaHood. His supporters see him as someone who could hit the ground running on day one, and as a top adviser to the campaign and transition, he’s already been speaking with authority and detail about how the Biden administration will handle transportation.
The caveats: Porcari remains a long-shot candidate, with the biggest hurdle being the increasing pressure on Biden to name a diverse cabinet. There’s also a sense that the president-elect might prefer an “elected official with a natural constituency base and a higher political profile” for the job, as one source put it.
Meanwhile, Rahm’s stock drops: Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has been the subject of unions’ ire, is continuing his apparently self-propelled mission to get the DOT job, but it may not be getting through. “I wouldn‘t call him a leading or the leading contender,“ one source familiar with the transition told Business Insider. “I don't think the transition is answering his calls,“ the person said. Another person, described as a “key player in Democratic Chicago politics,” said: “Knowing Rahm, he‘s trying to will it.“
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