Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: President-elect names 48 to transition team Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 15:11:15 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \HD President-elect names 48 to transition team \BY Donald Lambro \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES President-elect Bill Clinton named 48 persons to his transition team yesterday, drawing heavily from top campaign aides, close friends and advisers, and officials from the Democratic Party's establishment. Most of his appointments were from his inner circle of aides and policy advisers, including George Stephanopoulos, who will be the transition's communications director, a post he held during the campaign; campaign manager David Wilhelm, who will head the political affairs transition team; and campaign chief executive officer Eli Segal, who will be the transition's chief financial officer. But Mr. Clinton also chose two top Democratic National Committee officials: Alexis Herman, who is the DNC's chief of staff to national Chairman Ron Brown, and Mark Gearan, the former executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, who will be transition deputy director. Aides said yesterday the full transition team will ultimately swell to more than 600 people, with 90 percent of them to be based in Washington. One of the most striking characteristics of the transition team unveiled yesterday in Little Rock, Ark., is the relatively small number of moderate Democrats associated with the Democratic Leadership Council, which Mr. Clinton chaired. However, Mr. Clinton appointed to the team Al From, the DLC's president and executive director, who has been a close Clinton adviser and the architect of many of his proposals, and Bruce Reed, a former DLC press secretary. Mr. From will be transition director of domestic policy, and Mr. Reed, who has been deputy manager for policy in the Clinton campaign, will be Mr. From's deputy - suggesting that Mr. Clinton may want his administration's domestic programs to be peopled by moderate Democrats. Mr. From was a key Clinton aide at the Democratic National Convention's platform proceedings who worked to keep the party document from being overloaded with what one Democrat called "the more strident liberal rhetoric." The DLC chief has been a key player in the Clinton campaign's transition policy meetings. For economic policy transition director - a critical area for the new administration - Mr. Clinton tapped Robert Reich, a Harvard political economist and a close friend who is part of the Oxford University circle of Clinton advisers. Mr. Reich, a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, has written widely on economic issues and has been an economic adviser to Michael Dukakis in the 1988 campaign and to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat. Mr. Clinton is said to have read everything Mr. Reich has written, and the scholar has been mentioned as a possible chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Mr. Reich, who served in a low-level policy post at the Federal Trade Commission in the Carter administration, has been a longtime champion of a government industrial policy in which government would play a central role in singling out industries for special assistance and support. Serving as Mr. Reich's deputy director will be Gene Sperling, who was the campaign's economic policy director and a key architect in the drafting of Mr. Clinton's economic plan, "Putting People First." Deputies added to the communications transition team were Mala Romash, press secretary to Vice President-elect Al Gore, Jeffrey Eller, former political director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Ricki Seidman, a chief aide to Mr. Kennedy's Labor and Human Resources Committee who has been on leave while working for the Clinton campaign. Mr. Kennedy, who is also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, hired Miss Seidman last year to dig up unfavorable information to block Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It was Miss Seidman who found University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill, who lodged last-minute sexual harassment charges against Justice Thomas. In her previous job as legal director for the lobbying group People for the American Way, Miss Seidman helped orchestrate the successful campaign to block Senate confirmation of Reagan nominee Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM