Clinton Taps Garamendi for No. 2 Post at Dept. of Interior

President Clinton on Friday nominated former California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi to the No. 2 post at the Interior Department, a job that has been vacant since Clinton took office.

The long-expected announcement was made by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, who cited Garamendi’s consumer activism and environmental sensitivity as credentials for the position of deputy secretary of the Interior.

“I am delighted that he will become a member of the leadership team at the department,” Babbitt said in a press release. “He has had an extraordinary career in California where he is well-known for his deep commitment to economic development and environmental protection.”

Garamendi, 50, had been expected to land an Administration job after he lost the Democratic nomination for governor of California to Kathleen Brown last year.

He was California chairman of Clinton’s primary and general election campaigns in 1992. His wife of 29 years, Patti, is director of recruitment for the Peace Corps.

Babbitt had sought a Californian for the department’s deputy post because many contentious environmental and land-use issues are played out in the state.

Among the areas bearing directly on the state are new national parklands in the Mojave Desert, management of the former military post at the Presidio in San Francisco and endangered species programs in Orange, San Diego and Kern counties. Department-run water programs also have a huge impact on California.

Before serving as California’s first elected insurance commissioner, Garamendi was a member of the state Assembly and Senate, where he was majority leader and chairman of the Joint Committee on Science and Technology and the Revenue and Taxation Committee.

He was raised on a cattle ranch in Mokelumne Hill, Calif., and attended UC Berkeley and Harvard University. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia.