Commerce Pick Carries Lengthy China Résumé
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
SEATTLE — Top slots in the Obama administration were filling up fast when Gary Locke was asked by a friend several weeks ago whether he expected to get a job offer from the new president.
“He mentioned that he hadn’t gotten any calls from D.C.,” recalled Ron Chew, a longtime friend of Mr. Locke here in his hometown. “He said, ‘So I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.’ ”
The phone finally rang a few days ago. And now, said an administration official, Mr. Locke, a former two-term Democratic governor of Washington with a longstanding interest in expanding trade relations with China, will be introduced Wednesday as the president’s choice to lead the Commerce Department.
Although the Commerce Department job is not the most prominent in the cabinet, it has been one of the hardest for Mr. Obama to fill. Two previous picks have withdrawn.
Supporters say Mr. Locke, the nation’s first and only Chinese-American governor and now an expert on China issues as a partner in a prominent Seattle law firm, brings something new: an international focus, centrist pragmatism, strong skills in public policy and a largely scandal-free résumé.
The president’s first choice, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat, withdrew from the confirmation process because of a federal investigation into state contracting. The next selection, Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, pulled out after citing political differences with Mr. Obama.
Several people who know Mr. Locke, 59, say his selection is a good fit for a department whose portfolio includes the complicated political and management challenges of the census (a sticking point with Mr. Gregg) and the oversight of agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which plays an important role in environmental and fishing issues.
Yet it is Mr. Locke’s work with China that they say stands out the most, both from his time as governor, from 1997 to 2005, and now in the private sector.
“He’s really, really proud of his Chinese heritage, and he’s passionate that we need to have a positive relationship with China,” said Chris Vance, a Republican who served with Mr. Locke in the State Legislature and in King County government.
Mr. Vance was his party’s state chairman when Mr. Locke was governor, and he frequently criticized Mr. Locke at the time. Mr. Vance now says, “There are a lot worse Democrats out there if you’re a Republican.”
Washington officials frequently refer to the state as the most trade dependent in the nation, saying a third of its jobs depend on foreign trade. As governor, Mr. Locke made at least three trade trips to China. Since leaving office, he has helped lead the China practice of the Seattle law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, which he joined in 2005.
The next year, Mr. Locke helped organize the 2006 visit to Seattle of President Hu Jintao of China, which was Mr. Hu’s only other American stop on his way to meet with President George W. Bush. Last summer, Mr. Locke carried the Olympic torch on one of its last legs in China before it reached Beijing.
Several leaders of trade groups in Seattle say Mr. Locke, the child of Chinese immigrants who lived the first years of his life in public housing in Seattle, is treated like a “rock star” when Chinese officials visit Seattle and when he travels to China.
“That means he’s got access and sort of a special cachet that’s probably going to get him a very special hearing,” said Bill Stafford, president of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle.
In a 2005 interview with the Hong Kong-based newspaper The South China Morning Post, Mr. Locke said that despite comments by the State Department saying Mr. Hu would not meet with some foreigners during Communist Party meetings the year before, “I was able to meet with him for more than an hour.”
Representative Rick Larsen, a Democrat whose district includes Everett, Wash., where Boeing makes most of its airplanes, said Mr. Locke did “not need to start relationships in China.”
Mr. Larsen, co-chairman of a House working group on the United States and China, said: “For all of us in Washington State, we wake up in the morning looking west. We tend to look at the Asian Pacific region as our future. Just generally, Gary brings a broader trade experience.”
