Editor's Note: This is another installment in the Rapier's daily profiles of one of Barack Obama's nominees to a cabinet or high-level administration post.Secretary of Agriculture:
Born December 12, 1950. Vilsack served as Governor of Iowa for two terms, through 2006. From 2006 to February 2007, he was an announced candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for President. He then became national co-chair for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Tom Vilsack was abandoned at birth and raised by adoptive parents as a Roman Catholic. He received a Bachelor's degree in 1972 from Hamilton College in New York and a law degree in 1975 from Albany Law School. He and his wife, Ann Christine "Christie" Bell then moved to rural Mount Pleasant, Iowa, her hometown, where he joined his father-in-law in law practice. They have two sons.
Tom Vilsack was elected mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa in 1987, following the murder of mayor Ed King by a disgruntled citizen. He was elected to the Iowa State Senate in 1992 by a relatively slim margin. He helped pass a law for workers to receive health coverage when changing jobs.
In 1998, Vilsack narrowly won the general election for Governor against a popular GOP congressman – making it the first time in 30 years that a Democrat was elected Governor of Iowa. His second term was noteworthy for his push for a controversal business-incentives fund for the state. Also, in July 2005, Vilsack signed an executive order allowing all felons who had served their sentences to vote again.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. City of New London, Vilsack vetoed but was overridden on Iowa House file 2351, a bill to restrict Iowa's use of eminent domain.
Vilsack was also chair of the Governors Biotechnology Partnership, the Governors Ethanol Coalition, and the Midwest Governors Conference, and has also been chair and vice chair of the National Governors Association's committee on Natural Resources, where he worked to develop the NGA's farm and energy policies. Vilsack has called for replacing the Department of Energy with a new Department of Energy "Security," to oversee and redefine the federal government’s role in energy policy.
On December 17, 2008, President-elect Barack Obama announced his choice of Vilsack as the nominee to be the next U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Opposition to a Vilsack appointment has come from the Organic Consumers Association, because, among other things, they contend that Vilsack has repeatedly demonstrated a preference for large industrial farms and genetically modified crops. The Washington Post calls Vilsack a "shoo-in" for the job.
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