Will Vilsack be the 21st-century version of ‘Tama Jim’ Wilson?

Tom Vilsack is the longest-serving agriculture secretary in half a century, and there’s already chatter about a continued role in government if Democrats retain control of the White House. “That will be up to Hillary Clinton,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, who notes that fellow Iowan “Tama Jim” Wilson holds the record for cabinet tenure — 16 years.

“It wouldn’t be unusual for an Iowan … to be secretary of agriculture in her [Clinton’s] administration,” says Grassley, a Republican and a booster of the Hawkeye State. During a teleconference he cited Wilson’s achievement of serving as agriculture secretary under Presidents William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft. Or, Vilsack might land a different cabinet post, said Grassley. “I imagine he will want to do something different.”

The agriculture secretary sat next to former president Bill Clinton throughout the Wednesday evening session of the Democratic National Convention. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, another finalist for vice president, was to the immediate left of Bill Clinton. That sort of seating arrangement, on the day Virginia Sen Tim Kaine because the party nominee for vice president, was not happenstance, said an NPR analyst.

Vilsack has been mentioned as a potential White House chief of staff, says The Hagstrom Report.

“Two Washington insiders who declined to be quoted directly have told me that Vilsack is and will likely remain Clinton’s top ag adviser, on everything from policy agenda to choosing the next USDA chief,” says Tom Philpott at Mother Jones. “That tells me that if Clinton prevails, the next administration will look a lot like the current one on ag policy.”

The last remaining member of President Obama’s original cabinet, Vilsack has demurred repeatedly at suggestions he might leave the USDA for another federal job and wryly noted he will be unemployed come Jan. 20, when political appointees will join Obama in leaving office. “We don’t have anything to report on this at this time,” said a Vilsack spokeswoman when asked about his plans. Vilsack told The Hagstrom Report that he will work to get Clinton, a longtime friend, elected, and that no one should think past Election Day.

As chairman of the White House Rural Council, Vilsack has taken a high-profile role in recent months as part of the administration’s response to opioid and prescription drug abuse. At USDA, he promoted ethanol and other biofuels, tried to referee the debate over labeling GMO foods, and encouraged local food production and large-scale commodity operations.

“Some historians consider Wilson the greatest of all U.S. secretaries of agriculture,” says a University of Iowa biography. Under his direction, the USDA opened experiment stations in all parts of the country and cooperative extension programs began, a vital link in bringing information to the farm. The agency also opened farm-credit programs and expanded weather forecasting. “Under his tutelage, farmers across the country were taught that farming was a science,” says the Biographical Dictionary of Iowa.

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