Ex-governor likely pick for Commerce
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WASHINGTON - President Obama's likely third pick for commerce secretary is Gary Locke, former governor of Washington, a senior administration official said yesterday.
Locke, a Democrat, was the nation's first Chinese-American governor when he served two terms in the Washington state house from 1997 to 2005.
Obama's expected choice of Locke came less than two weeks after his most recent pick, Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, backed out. Just over a week after Obama named him and he accepted, Gregg cited "irresolvable conflicts" with the policies of the Democratic president.
Obama originally gave the post, which requires Senate confirmation, to Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. He withdrew in January, before Obama took office, after the disclosure that a grand jury is investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state.
The commerce post is typically not one of the more high-profile jobs in any administration. The head of the department oversees agencies responsible for the once-a-decade Census, for oceans policy, and for many aspects of international trade, among other issues.
But in Obama's administration, the delay in getting a commerce secretary has been top news in large part because it has been accompanied by other Cabinet troubles.
He still does not have a Health and Human Services secretary. Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination for that post amid a tax controversy.
Locke, 59, was born into an immigrant family and lived in a Seattle public housing project until he was 6. He graduated from Yale University, which he attended with scholarships and financial aid, and Boston University Law School.
Locke was briefly linked to the scandal over foreign contributions to President Clinton's 1996 campaign. In July 1998, he gave a deposition to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight about his relationships with questioned Clinton donors.
But the committee subsequently said the deposition produced no evidence that Locke knowingly accepted illegal campaign donations.
Locke denied any wrongdoing, and he subsequently returned some checks tied to people implicated in the fund-raising scandal.
He lists among his accomplishments as governor a package of tax breaks that persuaded 
