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Few Washington State names on Biden’s transition list

There aren’t many of us in Biden’s inside circle, apparently.

Yesterday, the Biden-Harris team released the names of individuals assigned to their Agency Review Teams. These are the folks that will help lead the transition for each agency, and begin slotting in the 4,000 political appointees a new administration requires.

Among the 500 names, only two stand out to me as from Washington State. Another five are indirectly connected to the state.

Now, of course I don’t know every name on this list. There may be a few others in there who are based in Washington, I’d guess.

But, Washington State is 2% of the population. It’s also one of the hotbeds of innovation, of international engagement, and of progressive policies.

If only 2% of the 500 names were from Washington State, there would be 10 names on the list.

If Washington State were more important in the national economy and conversation than the average state, as I think empirically that one could argue, then there might be even more names on this list.

But there are only two. Seven if you’re generous. Here they are.

Veronica Valdez is on the team reviewing the Dept. of Defense. She is a Commission Specialist at the Port of Seattle.

Kiran Ahuja is the CEO of Philanthropy NW. She’s on the Office of Personnel Management review team.

Tom Sullivan is a member of the international policy team at Amazon. He is listed on the team assigned to the Dept. of State but is not based in Seattle.

Maggie Thomas spent a few months on Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign as “deputy climate director,” but is based out of California. She’s on the Dept. of Interior team.

Lisa Garcia is runs Grist’s Fix Solutions Lab. Grist is based in Seattle, but Lisa is housed out of NYC. She’s part of the EPA review team.

Linda Etim is at the Gates Foundation, but is based in Washington DC. She’s on the International Development review team.

Mark Schwartz is an Enterprise Strategist at AWS. His Linked In says he is based in Boston. He’s on the review team for OMB.


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