Who is Gov. Cooper appointing to empty Cabinet posts, legislative seats?
With six Cabinet seats and two Wake County seats in the state legislature up for grabs recently, Gov. Roy Cooper has been busy appointing new people to those high-profile state government roles.
Democratic President Joe Biden is responsible for one of the vacancies, after he tapped North Carolina environmental chief Michael Regan to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
On Feb. 16, Cooper picked a new N.C. Department of Environmental Quality secretary to replace Regan. The job will deal with everything from industrial and farming pollution, to continuing Cooper’s goal of reducing North Carolina’s greenhouse gas emissions.
He also needed to replace the heads of three other state government agencies who all recently announced they would be leaving those roles, too: at the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
And after he named his Department of Administration secretary to take one of those other jobs, he was left with an opening there, too. And he has replaced the acting head of the Department of Information Technology with a different nominee to be the state’s permanent chief information officer.
In addition to those Cabinet seats, Cooper had to fill two legislative seats. Both are in Wake County and held by Democrats, so the Democratic Party nominated replacements who Cooper then appointed.
The two lawmakers have already taken office, while the Cabinet nominees are awaiting Senate confirmations. The nominees can take office in the meantime, but aren’t guaranteed to keep the jobs.
Like in the federal government, nominees for North Carolina’s Cabinet positions are subject to approval from the N.C. Senate.
That had never been the case in the past, but the Republican-led General Assembly changed the law after Cooper, a Democrat, defeated former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in 2016. Cooper tried to get it thrown out in court, but he lost. The legislature was allowed to go ahead with hearings on his nominees.
Lawmakers ended up approving all Cooper’s Cabinet nominees during his first term. But they did reject some of his nominees for non-Cabinet positions like the N.C. Board of Education, The News & Observer reported.
So who’s getting these new jobs? We’ll keep updating this story as we find out more.
Department of Environmental Quality
One of the most high-profile jobs in Cooper’s cabinet is DEQ, where the secretary leads the state’s environmental regulatory efforts. Regan was known for being able to work with business interests as well as environmentalists, The News & Observer reported in a recent profile on him, and he appears headed to an easy confirmation in the U.S. Senate to take over the EPA.
To replace him, Cooper has nominated Dionne Delli-Gatti. Like Regan, she has worked in both the federal government and with the private Environmental Defense Fund. She’s also an Air Force veteran, Cooper said in a Feb. 16 press release when he announced her nomination.
“Dionne Delli-Gatti is an experienced leader and champion for a safer, healthier environment,” Cooper said in a statement. “I’m confident that she is the right person to continue the progress we’ve made over the last four years with cleaner energy, air and water.”
She most recently has been Director of Southeast Climate and Energy at the Environmental Defense Fund, a news release said. Before that, she was the Congressional and Governmental Liaison at the Atlanta EPA Regional office. She also has worked for the Ohio EPA.
“Dionne’s background in advancing clean energy makes her an excellent person to take on the continuing work of moving North Carolina to a clean energy economy,” Cassie Gavin, the N.C. Sierra Club’s senior director of government relations, said in a press release.
Department of Commerce
At the Department of Commerce, he named Machelle Sanders, secretary of the N.C. Department of Administration, as the new secretary on Feb. 12. She is replacing Tony Copeland, who left his post in January.
“I plan to execute on a bold vision for economic restoration and progress for our state and its people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sanders said in a news release announcing her nomination. “My top priority is to marry innovation and strong leadership to create promising conditions for economic recovery and opportunity.”
Sanders is one of few Black women to ever lead a Cabinet agency in North Carolina. She was The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of the Month in July 2020.
She began her job leading the Department of Administration in 2017 after Cooper first took office. Previously she had been a vice president at Biogen, a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company with a Research Triangle Park office that Sanders ran.
“Her strong background as a business leader and her extensive knowledge of what it takes to build a globally competitive workforce will serve North Carolina well as we attract better paying jobs, help small businesses and stimulate our innovation and entrepreneurial economy,” Cooper said in a press release announcing her nomination.
Cooper will now need to name a replacement for Sanders at the Department of Administration. Cooper said Deputy Secretary Mark Edwards will serve as interim secretary.
Department of Military and Veterans Affairs
At Military and Veterans Affairs, Cooper nominated Retired Lt. Gen. Walter Gaskin, a retired Marine Corps general, to take over for departing agency head Larry Hall. Hall is a former lawmaker from Durham and also a Marine veteran.
Gaskin was the commander of Camp Lejeune, the North Carolina base that is also the Marine Corps’ largest, from 2006 to 2008. He later served as a top NATO official before retiring in 2013.
“After a career at the highest levels of the United States Marine Corps, Walter Gaskin understands well the challenges and opportunities faced by active duty military personnel, veterans and their families and he shares my belief that North Carolina should be the most veteran- and military-friendly state in the nation,” Cooper said in a press release.
Gaskin, who grew up in Savannah, Georgia, was one of only four Black men to ever rise as high in the ranks of the Marines as he did, his hometown news station WTOC reported when he became a three-star general in 2010.
“Although I retired from active duty in 2013, my commitment to providing the opportunities, resources and care owed to our military members and veterans has never ceased,” Gaskin said in the press release from Cooper’s office. “I look forward to working with Governor Cooper and his team as we continue this critical work.”
Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
Cooper nominated D. Reid Wilson, a top deputy, to take over for departing agency head Susi Hamilton.
Wilson has a long history in environmentalism and politics. He was the national political director of the Sierra Club from 1989 to 1993 and later worked for the EPA in the Clinton administration. He then led the nonprofit Conservation Trust for North Carolina, from 2003 to 2017, before joining the department Cooper has now tapped him to lead.
“I am glad that he will lead the agency as we continue to support our state’s art, history and music and to preserve North Carolina’s lands, parks, and wildlife,” Cooper said.
Department of Information Technology
The state’s new top IT person will be Jim Weaver, who Cooper nominated on Feb. 17 to take over the Department of Information Technology in place of acting CIO Thomas Parrish. Parrish had replaced Tracy Doaks.
Weaver previously held the same job for the state governments in Pennsylvania and Washington. One of the areas where Cooper, a Democrat, and the Republican-led legislature have found agreement is a desire to expand broadband internet access to more parts of the state. Cooper said Weaver will help with that effort.
“Jim Weaver is a seasoned technology leader and manager, and he is well-positioned to protect the safety of all North Carolinians while helping grow broadband connectivity across the state,” Cooper said in a press release.
Legislative seats
One of the seats in the state legislature was empty because state law gives the governor the power to appoint judges in case of vacancies. That’s what Cooper did when he selected then-Rep. Darren Jackson to replace Phil Berger Jr., the son of the state’s Republican Senate leader, on the N.C. Court of Appeals.
Berger won election to the N.C. Supreme Court, leaving a vacancy behind on the lower court. Cooper appointed Jackson, a Knightdale lawyer who previously had been the top Democrat in the N.C. House of Representatives, to take Berger’s spot on the bench.
Knightdale Mayor James Roberson took Jackson’s seat.
The second empty legislative seat was vacated by Wake County businessman Sam Searcy. A Democrat who won his Senate race in the southern part of the county, Searcy announced he would step down shortly after the election.
For that seat, Democrats nominated and Cooper appointed Sydney Batch.
Batch had been a member of the N.C. House and was seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party after flipping a conservative-leaning district in southwest Wake County in 2018. But she lost her 2020 reelection campaign to Republican Erin Paré, who is now the only Republican representing Wake County in the legislature in either chamber.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Megaphone or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published January 13, 2021 at 1:47 PM.
