Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg selected Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego (D) to participate in a new advisory committee.
Kate Gallego (pictured above) was among the 27 members of the agency’s new Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC) for a two-year term named by Buttigieg last week. Explaining the need for the committee, Buttigieg noted the United States faces both “unprecedented opportunity and unprecedented challenges in transportation.”
Buttigieg said the “deep expertise and diverse perspectives” of committee members like Kate Gallego, who previously worked for the Arizona Democratic Party, “will provide advice to ensure the future of transportation is safe, efficient, sustainable, equitable, and transformative.”
The TTAC will meet for the first time on January 18, when the DOT press release explains the committee will explore “[p]athways to safe, secure, equitable, environmentally friendly and accessible deployments of developing technologies.”
KateGallego and the other committee members will also develop new ways to use automation, policies to “grow and support a safe and productive U.S. workforce,” ways to exchange transportation data, “elevate cybersecurity solutions and protect privacy,” as well as more “emerging issues, topics, and technologies.”
The mayor is the former wife of Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03), who is currently running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I). The Democrats’ former marriage was highlighted in a recent ad created by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which castigated the congressman as a “deadbeat dad.”
According to the NRSC ad, Ruben Gallego “abandoned his wife when she was nearly 9 months pregnant, then married a D.C. lobbyist.” Predicting Sinema will eventually enter the race as an independent candidate, the NRSC ad summarized Arizona’s choices as between a “deadbeat dad or liberal Democrat.” The candidate’s campaign dismissed the ad as “a baseless, deeply personal attack.”
Kate Gallego later endorsed Ruben Gallego’s campaign for Senate, claiming she knows “first-hand his commitment to building a brighter future for Arizona.” The Associated Press reported that the Gallegos were considered a “power couple” in Arizona politics prior to their divorce.
Kate Gallego faced pressure from the police and other emergency services unions last year, when it was reported she is considering signing a consent decree that would allow the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide oversight of the Phoenix Police Department (PPD).
In December 2023, 19 Republicans in the Arizona House of Representatives signed a letter urging Kate Gallego not to sign such a decree, which they warned will “remove local control from police departments” and prove “disastrous for both the public safety of the residents in those cities and for taxpayers.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kate Gallego” by Mayor Kate Gallego. Background Photo “U.S. Department of Transportation Building” by U.S. Department of Transportation.
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