Pritzker Is Frontrunner for Commerce

By Shailagh Murray and Matthew Mosk
Hotel heiress Penny Pritzker, who commanded Barack Obama's record-shattering fundraising operation, has emerged as the frontrunner to become Commerce Secretary, the first campaign insider and "Friend of Barack" to surface as a Cabinet pick.

Sources close to Obama said Pritzker is conducting an extensive review of her vast financial holdings and weighing whether she can disentangle herself to the extent necessary to meet Obama's strict standards for service in his administration. Assuming she can, Obama sources said, the job is hers.

Commerce is not a high priority slot at the moment, but ever since the election, Obama advisers have worried about the "business as usual" appearances of giving Pritzker a job tinged by cronyism. Most Commerce secretaries in recent decades were major donors for the presidents they served, the type of old-style practice that Obama has pledged to purge.

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