When White House chief of staff James Baker wanted to conduct a mid-term review of operations in the West Wing, he plucked Reagan loyalist John Herrington from the Pentagon to serve as his troubleshooter.
Herrington, a lawyer who amassed a fat portfolio of real estate holdings during the years he spent in California, conducted the study for Baker and stayed on at the White House as head of presidential personnel.
Now, however, the 45-year-old Herrington, known more for his administrative talents than his political skills, has been nominated by President Reagan to head the Energy Department -- and possibly help facilitate its demise.
Herrington was nominated to replace Donald Hodel, an Oregonian whose professional interest in energy policy made him as comfortable at the Energy Department as in his previous assignment as undersecretary of interior.
Should the Senate agree, as is expected, Hodel soon will return to the Interior Department to succeed Secretary William Clark, long-time Reagan aide who is headed home to his 888-acre California ranch.
The move could set the stage for a proposal by Reagan -- one now under discussion in the White House -- to fold energy policy functions into the Interior Department and make good on a 1980 pledge to abolish the Energy Department.
And he could choose fewer more loyal subordinates than Herrington to help phase out their own jobs in the name of furthering the Reagan revolution.
Herrington has remained true to his conservative stripes as head of presidential personnel. Months before the Nov. 7 election, he announced plans to review the performance of hundreds, if not thousands, of Reagan political appointees to determine who should stay and who should go, in a second term.
Herrington moved to Washington with Reagan in 1981 as a deputy assistant to the president and in September of that year became assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs.
A Los Angeles native and ex-Marine, Herrington had practiced law in California since 1964, while expanding his interests into real estate development, ranching, restoration of historic buildings and other investments.
His wife, Lois, is an assistant attorney general, in charge of the Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs, which makes them one of the most influential husband-wife teams in the administration.
Lois Herrington, who has spearheaded a task force on victims of violent crime, is a longtime associate of presidential counselor Edwin Meese and worked with Meese as a prosecutor in the Alameda County (Calif.) District Attorney's Office. Meese has been renominated by Reagan to be attorney general.
