Thomas Vilsack
Thomas Vilsack was first elected mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in 1987. Thomas Vilsack was elected to the Iowa State Senate in 1992. As a State Senator, Thomas Vilsack worked to require companies who received state tax incentives to provide better pay and benefits. He also helped pass a law which allowed workers to receive their health coverage when changing jobs, and helped redesign the state’s Workforce Development Department. In addition, he wrote a bill which required the state to pay for 50% of county mental health costs.
Prior to Democratic Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry’s (D-Massachusetts) selection of Senator John Edwards, Vilsack was thought to be high on the list of potential running mates for Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. During the Kerry campaign some political observers felt that the chances were good that Vilsack would have been offered a cabinet level position in the event of a Kerry victory.
Tom Governor Vilsack did not seek a third term as governor. As a result a number of leading Republicans and Democrats – such as Republican Jim Nussle and Democrats Ed Fallon and Chet Culver – have begun to explore running for the Governor’s office.
Vilsack’s name was recently put forth as a possible candidate to chair the Democratic National Committee after the term of chairman Terry McAuliffe had expired. Vilsack withdrew his name from consideration for that post on November 22, 2004. He stated that he did that in order to focus on his governing agenda for the last two years of his term. There has also been some speculation about a possible Presidential run in 2008.
In 1998 former conservative Republican Governor of Iowa, Terry E. Branstad, decided not to seek re-election after having served 16 years as Governor. Tom Vilsack soon emerged as the Democratic candidate. His Republican opponent was Jim Ross Lightfoot, a former Representative to the US House. Vilsack’s election marked the first time in about 30 years that a Democrat was elected as Governor.
The Vilsack administration was involved with increasing the number of children covered by health insurance by 300%. He also created a statewide drug-purchasing organization, to reduce the price of prescription drugs for the elderly. Vilsack also secured 1,000,000 (USD) from the federal government for a 17-county task force whose goal is to eliminate methamphetamine production. His budget also provided for the construction of a new $50,000,000 (USD) state crime lab. In 2002 he won his second term in office by defeating Republican challenger Doug Gross, a lawyer from Des Moines and former chief of staff to Terry Branstad.
Newly elected President Barack Obama selected Thomas Vilsack to be the United States Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack’s nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on January 20, 2009.
Quotes from Thomas Vilsack
The political positions of Thomas Vilsack on the On The Issues site.