Governor-elect McDonnell announced over the weekend that the next Virginia secretary of transportation will be Sean Connaughton.

Connaughton is a former chief of the U.S. Maritime Administration, and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Prince William County. While serving in the latter capacity he was a member of the Metropolitan Washington Transportation Planning Board.

What can we expect from him? Connaughton has been a centrist, extremely popular while in Prince William but not conservative enough to win a GOP party primary for major statewide office. He heartily supports the concept of Northern Virginia raising new sources of revenue specifically to be spent in Northern Virginia, and even as a Republican was a major advocate for the 2002 transportation tax hike referendum that eventually failed.

We can expect Connaughton to support more spending on transportation in general. He will likely continue road capacity expansion projects, probably including HOT lanes and the widening of I-66, but he will also likely support transit expansions. He is not considered to be hostile to transit in any way. No word so far on how he feels about bike/ped projects. Long story short, Connaughton may not be a dream candidate for urbanists, but he’s probably as favorable a choice as we could reasonably expect given a Republican governor. It seems unlikely he will be any worse – and he could be better – than outgoing secretary Pierce Homer.

One specific question that comes to mind: How will a hometown guy with a specialty in maritime transportation affect Prince William County’s proposal to run a ferry service up the Potomac? Seems plausible that project just got a whole lot more likely.