Sean Connaughton Named Secretary of Transportation
December 30, 2009
Dec. 30-Gov. Elect Bob McDonnell has named Sean Connaughton as his secretary of transportation. He was former chairman of the Prince William Board of Supervisors.
From the Roanoke Times
Dec. 30, 2009
Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell last week named Sean Connaughton his secretary of transportation. Connaughton, by all accounts, has the background and temperament to succeed in the job. It remains to be seen if his boss and the General Assembly will let him.
Connaughton is a former chairman of the Prince William Board of Supervisors. In that position, he established a county transportation department that built $300 million worth of roads. He even backed a local tax increase to raise more money, but voters rejected it. Nevertheless, he demonstrated that he is a rare moderate Republican willing to support taxes to fund public services.
It helps, too, that he has commuted in Northern Virginia, on the state's most congested roads, for more than two decades. He knows the needs.
His pragmatic, realistic approach could serve the commonwealth well, if anyone in Richmond listens to him.
On the campaign trail, McDonnell pushed a transportation plan loaded with gimmicks but no real solutions to the chronic, desperate funding problems at the Virginia Department of Transportation. His colleagues in the General Assembly have offered nothing better.
McDonnell proposed nothing more when he announced Connaughton's selection. "I think transportation planning and transportation policy decisions are too slow, they're too bureaucratic and we've got to have more speed and decisiveness in order to get things done," he said.
