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Jan 7, 2009 2:23 pm US/Eastern
Rendell Seeks Confirmation Of 5 Cabinet Members
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ―
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Gov. Ed Rendell has begun the new year with a push to get the state Senate to confirm five nominees to fill out his 25-member Cabinet. (File)
CBS
Gov. Ed Rendell has begun the new year with a push to get
the state Senate to confirm five nominees to fill out his 25-member Cabinet.
The Democratic governor
asked lawmakers this week to endorse his picks to head the state departments of
Aging, Environmental Protection, Health, Revenue, and Labor and Industry.
One of the five, Sandi
Vito, has served as acting Labor and Industry secretary since February. She was
nominated to serve on a permanent basis in August, but the Senate did not act
on her choice.
Rendell's other choices
are John Michael Hall, Aging; John Hanger, Environmental Protection; Everette
James, Health; and Stephen Stetler, Revenue. The four also are the acting heads
of their respective departments.
Erik Arneson, spokesman
for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said Hanger's
nomination will get a hearing before the Environmental Resources and Energy
Committee. The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Mary Jo White, R-Venango, has expressed
reservations about Hanger.
"Certainly there are
concerns about him, and he'll have an opportunity to address those concerns,"
Arneson said.
Hanger, 51, is the
former president and chief executive of the environmental group Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future,
known as PennFuture. Like Vito, Hanger's formal nomination was sent to the Senate
in August but was not acted on.
Rendell spokesman Chuck
Ardo said Hanger's performance as acting secretary shows he is qualified.
"John's tenure thus far
should be encouraging to all those that had doubts and should reassure any
skeptics that he is a wise choice," Ardo said.
Vito, 43, has "a fairly
good amount of respect" among senators who have dealt with her, and no one has
raised issues related to the other three, Arneson said.
Vito had been chief of
staff to Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, and was the state Democratic
Party's political director.
James had been a senior
adviser to Rendell on public health, insurance and pension matters before being
named to replace Dr.
Calvin Johnson at
the Health Department in September.
Hall previously headed Pennsylvania's Office of Long Term Living and had been a
health official in Maine and Vermont. He replaced Nora Dowd Eisenhower at
the Department of Aging in October.
Stetler, 59, a former
Democratic state representative from York,
was selected to replace Tom Wolf at the helm of Revenue Department in November.
Ardo said Rendell
decided to wait until after the fall election to seek Senate confirmation for
the nominees.
"Legislators were
focusing on their political efforts. It seemed prudent to wait until the new
session to remove politics from the decision-making process," Ardo said.
Cabinet nominations
require a majority vote in the Senate for confirmation. Nominees must submit a
financial disclosure form. By tradition, they offer all 50 senators a
one-on-one meeting before a confirmation vote.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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