The search for a transportation secretary continues.

N.C. Board of Transportation member Lanny Wilson, a fundraiser for Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, has been promoted by Senate leader Marc Basnight and derided by commentators such as Chris Fitzsimon.

David Joyner, head of the N.C. Turnpike Authority, has emerged as an alternative to Wilson in recent days, although he was also a Perdue fundraiser.

Some public transit advocates, environmentalists and female political leaders are promoting another alternative: Nina Szlosberg.

Szlosberg, of Raleigh, is also a member of the transportation board and the Triangle Transit Authority. She's long been a backer of mass transit projects, once distributing copies of "The Little Engine That Could" to cheer up her fellow TTA trustees.

She's a popular choice among environmentalists, having chaired the Conservation Council of North Carolina's political action committee in the past.

She also has a clean reputation — a potentially crucial factor for a troubled agency. According to a Feb. 17 story in the N&O, she has not pushed for local projects in Raleigh in the last four years — a stark contrast to outgoing Secretary Lyndo Tippett.

Former assistant U.S. transportation secretary Gene Conti is also reportedly under consideration.

Carter Wrenn is not optimistic about a transit plan.

In a post on Talking about Politics, the Republican political consultant notes that a Speical Transit Advisory Commission is studying trains and buses as a mass transit plan for the Triangle. But he argues they intentionally left out how to pay for it.

Wrenn says this reminds him of the Triangle Transit Authority's 1995 plan:

This sounds more and more like the old TTA: Sell everyone on the sizzle – then worry about the money later. Instead of asking: 'What can we afford? And what is a reasonable cost to pay for a mass transit system with a limited number of riders?'

He says the state should figure out how to pay for a system first, then design it.

One quibble: The TTA plan was not technically "light rail," which denotes lighter trains that use overhead electrical power — think trolleys — but a commuter rail running on traditional tracks.