Personality Spotlight: Thomas J. Vilsack

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Thomas J. Vilsack, the 40th governor of Iowa, was chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be secretary of the U.S. Agriculture Department Wednesday.

Vilsack, 58, briefly was in the crowded field of Democrats seeking the party's presidential nomination, which Obama secured in June, Wikipedia said.

After beginning his campaign Nov. 30, 2006, and ending it Feb. 23, 2007, Vilsack threw his support behind Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Obama's nominee for secretary of state.

After leaving politics, Vilsack joined the Des Moines office of the Minneapolis law firm Dorsey and Whitney, and is of counsel.

Born in Pittsburgh, Vilsack was orphaned at birth and placed in a Catholic orphanage. He was adopted in 1951 by Bud and Dolly Vilsack.

He earned his bachelor's degree from Hamilton College in New York and his law degree from Albany Law School. Vislack and his wife, Christie, have two sons, Jess and Doug.

Vilsack began his political career as mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa in 1987. In 1992, he was elected to the Iowa Senate, where he helped pass legislation for workers to receive health coverage when changing jobs, and helped revamp Iowa's Workforce Development Department.

When Vilsack was narrowly elected governor in 1998, he was the first Democrat elected to the post in three decades, the online encyclopedia said. He won his second term by 8 percentage points. Early in his second term, Vilsack oversaw the creation of the Grow Iowa Values Fund, a $503 million appropriation designed to improve the state's economy by offering grants to corporations and initiatives pledged to create higher-income jobs. Vilsack generated controversy when he used a line-item veto, later ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, to pass the fund.

Vilsack in 2005 signed an executive order that allowed felons who served their sentences to vote again. Iowa law had held that convicted felons are permanently barred from voting unless the governor personally restored their voting rights.

Vilsack chose not to seek a third term as governor, leaving office in 2007.