Cabinet Jobs for William Daley, Cisneros Seen

President-elect Bill Clinton is believed to be on the verge of making two key urban policy appointments--Henry G. Cisneros, the former mayor of San Antonio, to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development and William Daley, the brother of Chicago’s mayor, to head the Department of Transportation.

Cisneros, who would be Clinton’s first Latino Cabinet appointment, is expected to be named today, transition sources said, along with two other nominees: Joycelyn Elders, Arkansas state health commissioner, as surgeon general, and Jesse Brown, a disabled Vietnam veteran, as head of the Veterans Affairs Department.

The appointment of Daley, head of Amalgamated Bank in Chicago, is expected later in the week as Clinton pushes to complete his Cabinet before Christmas. Daley, by virtue of his family’s political prominence and his own political connections, would play a key role as an Administration emissary to big-city mayors and urban political constituencies, the aides said.

Clinton is expected to announce his international affairs team--secretary of state, secretary of defense and national security adviser--as his final selections, transition aides say, after completing the domestic side of his Cabinet.

Clinton associates expect him to settle on Los Angeles attorney Warren Christopher for secretary of state and Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, for secretary of defense. Two Clinton foreign policy advisers, Anthony Lake and Samuel (Sandy) Berger are the leading candidates for national security adviser.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who calls Christopher “the greatest public servant I’ve ever known,” has told friends that Christopher is the only person he is supporting for a Clinton Administration post. Carter said Christopher, who served as a deputy secretary of state in his Administration, would make an excellent secretary of state.

Christopher’s status as a highly regarded, trusted aide has been apparent since last June, when Clinton turned to the 67-year-old lawyer to conduct the highly sensitive process of selecting a running mate. Christopher managed the task in notable secrecy and perhaps more important produced a candidate, Al Gore, whose selection met with wide praise.

For the rest of the campaign, Clinton relied on Christopher, who has been called upon by dozens of Democratic officeholders over the years for his sage advice and discretion, for contacts with party elders.

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who had been discussed as a possible defense secretary, met Sunday with Clinton in Little Rock, Ark., and advised the governor that he felt he could best serve the new Administration if he remained in the Senate, sources said.

Daley met with Clinton in Little Rock on Wednesday to discuss the transportation job, sources said. Clinton has placed a high priority on improving the nation’s transportation system--a policy that will put the transportation secretary in a key position.

James J. Blanchard, the former governor of Michigan and a longtime friend of Clinton, has also sought the post but appears to have fallen short, transition officials said.

Brown, director of the Washington office of the Disabled American Veterans, directed his spokesman on Wednesday to tell reporters that he had traveled to Little Rock and was expected to attend a press conference there today. Brown would be Clinton’s second black Cabinet member.

Several sources said former South Carolina Gov. Richard W. Riley was the leading candidate to be secretary of education and was expected to take the job even though he had some reservations about moving to Washington.

Clinton’s push for a quick completion of the process has been complicated by fierce behind-the-scenes lobbying on several key appointments.

Leaders of several major women’s organizations, who have pressed for Clinton to name a female attorney general, have mounted a sustained push for Washington attorney Brooksley Born to fill the post.

And Sen. Timothy E. Wirth’s bid to be secretary of energy has been complicated by a nasty campaign against him that several sources in the transition have attributed to fellow members of the Senate who harbor grudges against the Colorado Democrat.

Two Republicans, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, are known to have made disparaging remarks about Wirth. But transition sources said another important figure in the opposition to Wirth is the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.). A spokesman for Johnston denied involvement in the effort.

Wirth was a close ally of Johnston’s several years ago when Johnston lost a bid to become Senate majority leader. More recently, however, they clashed in a bitter fight over energy legislation that Johnston championed but lost in a close vote.

The most intense lobbying has centered on the attorney general’s post.

Women’s organizations have been adamant in seeking a female attorney general and have waged a highly public campaign to achieve that goal. Originally, federal appeals court judge Patricia M. Wald was the top choice, but since she withdrew her name last week, the organizations have concentrated their attention on Born.

“There’s been an awful lot of lobbying,” said one senior transition source. “Brooksley has been close to those groups for a long time.” Born has been active on several major committees of the American Bar Assn. and was once touted as a likely president of the group.

At the same time, she has taken an active role in women’s advocacy groups. She is a partner at Arnold & Porter, one of Washington’s largest law firms.

Some transition figures, however, are known to believe that Born lacks national stature.

According to several sources, Los Angeles attorney Shirley M. Hufstedler, secretary of education in the Carter Administration and a former judge on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, has been considered for attorney general.

Times staff writers Alan Miller and Doyle McManus in Washington and Henry Weinstein and Gebe Martinez in Los Angeles contributed to this story.