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Obama nominates ex-Miss. governor for SecNav

Former Mississippi governor Ray Mabus will be nominated as the next Secretary of the Navy, the Obama administration announced Friday.

Mabus, 60, has worked in a variety of government and private venues. He was the youngest person ever elected governor of Mississippi, a job he held from 1988 to 1992, and served as the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1994 to 1996 under President Bill Clinton. As a young man, he served in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer aboard the missile cruiser Little Rock.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Mabus was the chairman and chief executive officer of Fomax International from 2006 to 2007 and guided that company out of bankruptcy.

Mabus has been widely reported since January as a top contender for the Navy secretary job, although his public record on current Navy issues is minimal. Among the many topics he will have to deal with if he’s confirmed as the 75th Navy secretary will be decisions involving Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, one of Mississippi’s largest employers.

Mabus would succeed former secretary Donald Winter, who left office March 13.