Would bring to the job: Experience as a two-term governor of Oregon, a state as bruised as any by battles between industry (in this case the timber industry) and environmentalists — the same kinds of battles that the interior secretary must referee around the interior West. Known as a conservationist with a knack for reaching out to industry.
Is linked to Mr. Obama by: Endorsement of his candidacy in April, after the current Democratic governor of Oregon, Ted Kulongoski, had endorsed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In his own words: “A large part of the problem here is that we have framed the apparent conflict between economic activity and environmental stewardship as a mutually exclusive one, creating an “us versus them” mentality — a sense of separateness and a politics of scarcity, which inevitably creates winners and losers but no pathway to a sustainable solution. And this politics of scarcity is perpetuated not so much by the people engaged in the debate but rather by the institutions and organizational structures through which they are seeking to resolve their disputes.” (To a conference sponsored by Oregon Sea Grant, a university-based network of researchers and local marine specialists. April 3, 2007)
Used to work as: An emergency-room doctor in the small timber town of Roseburg, Ore. He was also a state representative and a three-term state senator. As Oregon’s governor, in the late 1990s, he worked with Michael O. Leavitt, then the Republican governor of Utah, and created a decision-making template they called “enlibra” to bring local groups together to solve intractable resource issues while adhering to the dictates of federal environmental standards. He has advocated a similar approach to the fights over the future of both endangered salmon and hydroelectric dams in the Columbia River system. Since stepping down from the governor’s office in 2003, he has served as president of the Estes Park Institute, which holds educational conferences for community hospitals. He is also the director of the Center for Evidence-Based Policy at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
Carries as baggage: A very obvious taste for a cabinet appointment in the new administration, as reflected in a recent Associated Press interview. In terms of policy, he is open to dam removal in parts of the Columbia River system, a highly controversial view. He is divorced and the father of son Logan, 11, making him reluctant to spend prolonged periods of time in Washington away.
Also known for: Skill as a fly fisherman and river rafter; he has made several solo journeys along the Class III and IV rapids of Oregon’s Rogue River. He is prone to including poetry in his speeches, and blogs occasionally on his Web site.
Résumé includes: Born March 5, 1947, in Colfax, Wash. ... graduated from Dartmouth with a degree in biology in 1969 ... graduated from the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland in 1973 .... interned at General Rose Memorial Hospital in Denver, Colo. ... in 1996, he told the magazine Nursing Economics that he once wanted to become a medical researcher and construct artificial organs.