WASHINGTON _ The first place he called home was a Pittsburgh orphanage. The next could be the U.S. Naval Observatory, the official residence of the vice president.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is said to be on Hillary Clinton's short list for vice president.
Others that may be under consideration, according to various news reports, are current Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra of California, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
Vilsack's office referred calls to the campaign of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, which had no comment on vice presidential deliberations.
Choosing Vilsack would demonstrate Clinton's commitment to rural agriculture, alternative energy, economic issues important to small-town communities and the battle against opioid addiction, a personal cause for Vilsack, who was abandoned by his adoptive mother, who abused drugs and alcohol.
He has experience helping communities heal after gun violence, having led Mount Pleasant, Iowa, through a tumultuous time 30 years ago following the public assassination of Mayor Edd King by an angry resident during a city council meeting. He ran for office at the request of King's father, who had heard him speak on a local radio station about raising money for a youth athletic facility.
He later served in the Iowa Senate and then ran a tight race to become the state's first Democratic governor in 30 years in a narrow victory widely attributed to the help of longtime family friends Bill and Hillary Clinton. Vilsack had been trailing in the polls until the Clintons began campaigning and fundraising for him.
He first came to know Clinton through his brother-in-law Tom Bell, who shared an office with her in the 1970s when both were young attorneys working for the House Judiciary Committee on the Watergate investigation. They remained friends, and Vilsack served as co-chairman of Clinton's primary campaign in 2008.
Clinton and Vilsack solidified their friendship during the four years they worked together in President Barack Obama's Cabinet. The decor in his Washington office includes an ink drawing of Iowa's Corn Palace _ a birthday gift from Clinton on a wall otherwise full of Pittsburgh sports memorabilia.
Choosing him for her running mate could help Clinton shore up support in two states _ Pennsylvania and Iowa _ but it may not make enough of a difference to matter.
"Political science studies have shown that except for 1960 _ when Lyndon Johnson really did help (John) Kennedy take the South _ there's never been a modern case where a presidential candidate has won a state he wouldn't have won without his running mate," said political scientist Dennis Goldford of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan couldn't deliver Wisconsin for Mitt Romney in 2012, and John Edwards couldn't deliver North Carolina for John Kerry in 2004.
"People still vote for the top of the ticket," Goldford said.
"The nominee is important not so much in electoral terms, but in reflecting something about the nominee," he said. "What kind of people does she think are capable of being president, and what kind would she be seeking out as important advisers?"
Vilsack, 65, is a substantive leader who could offer sound policy advice but would not be the kind of attack dog that some candidates look for in a running mate during a tough election.
"He's a really nice, substantive guy. But that's not always the role we expect a vice presidential candidate to play," Goldford said.
That makes Vilsack a solid, steady choice, albeit one that is not afflicted with a surfeit of pizzazz.
"I think in picking a vice president, ultimately it's that Hippocratic oath: 'First do no harm,'" and on that score, as well as others, Vilsack qualifies, Goldford said.
Vilsack also has former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's stamp of approval.
"Love him. He would be right up there on my A List if I were picking for Hillary," said Rendell, a longtime Clinton ally.
Vilsack traces his roots back to Rosalia Foundling Home in Pittsburgh, where he was abandoned days after his birth. He was raised in a tumultuous home in Shadyside and soon found himself abandoned again by his suicidal, drug-addicted mother. He was raised by a single father who sunk all his money into a failing real estate business but still managed to scrape together tuition money to send his son to Shady Side Academy.
Vilsack attended Hamilton College in New York, where he met Christie Bell, his future wife, and followed her back to her home town of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. She now is a senior adviser to the United States Agency for International Development. A former teacher and librarian, she ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 2012. The Vilsacks have two grown sons, Jess and Douglas.
