Ex-interior sec’y to head transition if Clinton elected president

Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will head the team that organizes Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s transition to the White House if she wins next November’s election, her campaign announced Tuesday.

Salazar, of Hispanic descent, was secretary of the interior for President Barack Obama between 20092013, after serving as senator for Colorado.

The Clinton campaign said in a statement that Salazar will chair a team based in Washington that will “lead the transition planning for a potential ClintonKaine administration.”

The center of operations for the electoral campaign will remain in Brooklyn, New York.

Also forming part of Salazar’s team will be Tom Donilon, Obama’s former national security advisor; Michigan’s exGov. Jennifer Granholm; the president of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden; and the director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics, Maggie Williams.

In addition, two top political advisors of the Clinton Campaign, Ed Meier and Ann O’Leary, will move to Washington to manage “day to day operations,” while Heather Boushey, current executive director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, will be chief economist of the transition.

“While our campaign remains focused on the task at hand of winning in November, Hillary Clinton wants to be able to get to work right away as presidentelect on building an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top,” the former first lady’s campaign chief, John Podesta, said in a statement.

The head of the Obama Cabinet, Denis McDonough, got in touch late last July with personnel of the Clinton campaign and that of her Republican rival, Donald Trump, to inform them of the variety of resources available to help them plan an eventual transition.

Since early August, both campaigns have had the use of office space in the General Services Administration, or GSA, in Washington.

Clinton and Trump can also access intelligence reports as part of the transition policy with a view to January, when Obama’s successor will take office.