Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Houston Chronicle have put out a story today indicating the former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk is a finalist to be Secretary of Transportation in Barack Obama’s cabinet. The Dallas Observer blog has a bit as well.
Here’s a quote from the Star-Telegram story:
Speaking from his Dallas law office Thursday evening, Kirk confirmed in an interview that he was under consideration and said he was filling out a final vetting form for President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team.
“Yes, I am being vetted. I’ve met with the transition team,” said Kirk, the first African-American mayor of Dallas. “I’m honored. I got into this interesting relationship with Sen. Obama. I’m honored that my name would even be mentioned.”
Interesting, to be sure. From what I have seen Kirk is a proponent of toll roads but also a supporter of commuter rail. As for cycling and pedestrian issues, who knows. Is Ron Kirk as qualified as some of the other contenders for this position, such as Mortimer Downey or Steve Heminger? Absolutely not.
Some other resources:
on Dec 12th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
given the maniac running the dallas bike program still has a job, i can’t imagine mr. kirk is a bike guy at all.
on Dec 12th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I would say no way. In fact, I tried lots of different searches to see if there was ever any connection with Kirk and cycling, and I couldn’t find any. Not to say they don’t exist, but they would certainly seem rare. Honestly, though, I liked the guy as a candidate for senate here in 2002, but he just isn’t at the same level of other potential candidates when it comes to Secretary of Transportation. Not even close.