MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MR. SHUSTER: As you might imagine, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is pushing for more Latino candidates for top jobs, in fact, the Caucus has written a letter to the President-elect's transition team suggesting more than a dozen Latino candidates for everything from Agriculture Secretary to the head of Veterans Affairs.

California Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez joins us now to discuss it, and congresswoman, your sister, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez said this is not a numbers game for you. Do you feel the same way?

REP. SANCHEZ: Well, we have so many quality people that I would hope it would not be a numbers game. There's 18 percent of the population more or less these days is Hispanic descent, so we would, I would look to have more than 18 percent in the cabinet, that would be four, five, six people. There are still plenty of positions left and I would love to see a lot more Latinos in there.

MR. SHUSTER: The chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Representative Joe Baca warned that if Richardson is only the Latino in the cabinet, Obama's legislative agenda could be jeopardized. He also wrote that Latinos are, quote, "not to be taken lightly."

Do you agree with him?

REP. SANCHEZ: Well, we certainly know that in the key states, the ones that Obama really wanted to win and needed to win in the Southwest and other places that Latinos made that margin of difference for him. So I think that the entire nation is surprised at the power that Latinos have now found at the voting booth. So then the question is: How do we translate that into power? And one of the things we would like to do is let people know that an agenda that is good for the Hispanic community is great for the American community. We care about the same things. We care about jobs and we care about doing well and about housing and about our children's education.

So there is still Secretary of Education, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Interior. There are still so many more jobs to be filled and I am confident that President-elect Obama understands that and that he will look for the qualified people within the Hispanic community, many to put there.

MR. SHUSTER: Well, congresswoman, who are some of those qualified people, say, for Education or EPA or some of the other agencies that you just mentioned?

REP. SANCHEZ: Well, you know, I think that my sister would be incredibly qualified to be the Secretary of Labor, she's a labor attorney. She's been in the union movement. She's a congresswoman who leads on the forefront of labor. So that would be naturally one of my picks to begin with. I'm hearing that Xavier Becerra is being considered for the trade position, the Trade Representative, an incredible, incredibly important position to us as a nation right now where we grapple with the creation of jobs and jobs here and what our relationships from a trade perspective will be with other countries, and, of course, his ability to speak Spanish and all of the trade that we have never really gotten off to with respect to Latin America and those countries to the south.

I think Xavier would be an incredible pick for that and I hope that Obama does choose him and that Xavier; even though it's great to be in the Congress, would really, really consider taking that job.

MR. SHUSTER: California Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, also a great sister and congresswoman.

Thanks for joining us today. We appreciate it.

REP. SANCHEZ: Thank you.

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