Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 27, 1993 TAG: 9312270044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Dale Eisman
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In 1992, America elected Bill Clinton president, ending the Reagan era.
But in 1993, Virginia elected Ronald Reagan governor.
As he completed his Cabinet last week, Gov.-elect George Allen seemed to have assembled a new Reagan administration in Richmond.
Like the team the former president brought to Washington almost 13 years ago, Allen's Cabinet appears to be a mix of pragmatists and true believers from his party's most conservative wing.
Several of his choices worked in Washington for Reagan or President Bush. But with one significant exception, they're untested in state government and apparently as eager as their boss to shake up things.
One of Allen's secretaries-to-be, public safety nominee Jerry Kilgore, is so inexperienced, his appointment even has some Republicans shaking their heads. Kilgore, who will lead Allen's crime-fighting initiatives, is only 32 and works as a part-time prosecutor in Scott County, which is almost crime-free.
"It gives every Republican hope," one longtime GOP operative groused privately. "If he can get a job, then we all ought to be able to work in this administration."
At least two other Allen choices appear likely to be lightning rods for criticism, but also figure to be very popular within the Republican right.
Kay Coles James, the lone black Cabinet member, will be secretary of health and human resources. A self-styled "evangelical, pro-life Republican," she is a former public affairs director for the National Right to Life Committee. Working in the federal Health and Human Services Department under Bush, she once blocked publication of an AIDS education pamphlet for teen-agers because it included instructions on the use of condoms.
James, a Portsmouth native, will lead Allen's welfare reform program. Its proposal to stop aid after two years to public-assistance recipients who aren't employed would make her controversial by itself, but James' outspoken opposition to abortion rights has supporters of legal abortion reeling. Karen Raschke, head of the Virginia chapter of Planned Parenthood, has described herself as "utterly dismayed" at the choice.
Allen gave environmentalists a similar scare by appointing Becky Norton Dunlop, 42, as secretary of natural resources. An undersecretary of the interior under Reagan, Dunlop promises to review environmental regulations to weed out those too tough on business.
Allen's other appointments appear less colorful. Robert T. Skunda, departing chairman of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, has the solid business credentials you'd expect of someone in that job and figures to be a popular choice as secretary of commerce and trade. Ditto for Robert Martinez, the Norfolk Southern Corp. executive who will be secretary of transportation.
Beverly Sgro, 52, the Virginia Tech dean of students who will be secretary of education, is unknown off campus. Mike Thomas, the secretary of administration-designate, managed Allen's campaign but has never worked in state government.
Allen's lone concession to continuity was in filling what traditionally is the most important Cabinet job: secretary of finance. Paul Timmreck, 48, is a career bureaucrat who did the same job for departing Gov. Douglas Wilder.
Timmreck's appointment may signal that Allen wants someone who can manage state finances so he can concentrate his energies elsewhere. One job he may want to tackle quickly is a crash course in state government for the rest of the Cabinet.
Dale Eisman is the chief of this newspaper's bureau in Richmond.
by CNB