Results

1 People Are Policy

The spotlight on the appointment by newly elected mayors, governors, and presidents of cabinet secretaries and other leaders has no analogue in the private sector. The election happens, and almost immediately attention and speculation shift to people and positions. The media and the political cognoscenti examine every name and pose suggestions of their own. All this is for good reason: These choices say much about what qualities the person making the appointments values. They are signals for how an election will translate into governing.

In the fall of 2014, finding a secretary of transportation was proving to be a more difficult task than I thought it would be. Yes, it was a monster of a job—roads and bridges, trains ...