Obama's anti-smoking health nominee

by Mark Silva

Barack Obama's own personal battle with tobacco is somewhat well known - he has confessed to falling off the no-smoking wagon from time to time.

The nation's battle with tobacco is another matter.

Now the president-elect has named the leader of an anti-smoking campaign to serve as deputy secretary at the Health and Human Services Department.

Wlliam Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, is Obama's choice, if confirmed, to serve as deputy HHS secretary under former Sen. Tom Daschle. In making the announcement, Obama said overhauling the nation's health care system will be a top priority and a key to putting the economy back on track.

"Under the leadership of Tom Daschle and Bill Corr, I am confident that my Department of Health and Human Services will bring people together to reach consensus on how to move forward with health care reform," Obama said in a prepared statement. "And I look forward to working with them in the days ahead."

Like many of Obama's appointees, Corr served in the Clinton administration -- as chief of staff to then-HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, now president of the University of Miami. Corr also has worked with Daschle, serving as his chief counsel and policy director from 1998-2000. He has run nonprofit health care centers in Tennessee and Kentucky.

The anti-smoking lobbyist - running a campaign that reported spending $675,000 last year trying to influence policymakers - will have to separate himself from that work, at a time when Congress this year is expected to tackle the question of whether the Food and Drug Administration should oversee the regulation of tobacco products.