The White House has contacted Harold Ford Jr. to discuss the possibility of him becoming Commerce secretary, and the former congressman is interested in taking the job, according to sources familiar with the talks.
However, the Obama administration is looking at other candidates and there are potential stumbling blocks to a Ford appointment.
{mosads}Proponents of Ford are touting his ties to business and his strong relationships with both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill.
“He can cut deals and he’ll bring more centrist Republicans to the table,” a backer of Ford said.
Despite reaching out to the GOP, the Obama administration only attracted three Republican votes for the stimulus the president signed into law on Tuesday.
Ford, who declined to comment for this article, has not been formally offered the Commerce Committee post, but talks between the administration and the former congressman have occurred in recent days.
Another name that has been floated for the Commerce job is Symantec CEO John Thompson.
Ford has bucked his party on a number of issues, ranging from the Iraq war to same sex marriage to partial birth abortions.
His record on trade issues is to the right of most congressional Democrats, but in 2005, he opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which narrowly cleared Congress.
President Obama and Ford are considered friends. Three years ago, Obama traveled on a C-130 military cargo plane with Ford and Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) on Obama’s first trip to Iraq.
In November of 2006, Obama stumped for Ford in Tennessee, urging voters in Nashville to elect the first black senator from the South in more than 100 years.
“I’m feeling lonely in Washington,” said Obama, who at the time was the only Congressional Black Caucus member in the Senate.
Ford ultimately fell short in his bid for the upper chamber against now Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
But Obama was impressed with his campaign, saying on “The Charlie Rose Show” in 2006 that Ford “is running the sort of competitive race in Tennessee that nobody anticipated. You’ve got a — here he is, a young African-American, single man, in Tennessee, who is running neck and neck and has at least a 50/50 chance of winning. Now, part of it is he is an extraordinary candidate. But that’s also a testimony to change. I think that has taken every Republican down there by surprise, how well he is doing among voters.”
NBC first reported on Tuesday that Ford was being considered for Commerce secretary.
The White House declined to comment for this article.
The CBC on Tuesday did not comment on a possible Ford nomination, though CBC members believe that Ford would be an upgrade over Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who recently withdrew his nomination as Commerce secretary because of policy differences with Obama.
The CBC earlier this month expressed major concerns about Gregg, noting his previous vote to abolish the Commerce Department and pointing out Commerce’s jurisdiction over the 2010 census.
Even though Obama subsequently moved to have the census director report directly to the White House, some in the CBC were not pleased with the decision to tap Gregg.
Ford, who has gotten married since his Senate bid, now works at Merrill Lynch. That could raise some concerns in the wake of multiple bailouts for the financial sector. However, Wall Street ties have not prevented Obama from dipping into the financial sector to fill out his administration.
Ford’s 2006 Senate bid was hampered by some of his family ties. For example, Corker criticized Ford for serving on the Financial Services Committee while his father, Harold Ford Sr., served as a lobbyist for Fannie Mae.
Ford advocates note that his family controversies were detailed by the GOP during the campaign and that despite them, he only lost by three points in a red state.
Ford has remained active in politics. He serves as chairman of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and is an MSNBC political analyst.
Obama has struggled to fill the Commerce slot. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) withdrew due to a probe in his home state. Weeks later, Gregg withdrew.
In November of last year, campaign finance chairwoman Penny Pritzker announced she was not a candidate for the Commerce post.
In 2002, Ford ruffled feathers by challenging Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for minority leader. Pelosi easily defeated Ford, 177-29.
Jared Allen contributed to this article.