Who’s on the inside track for a Romney Cabinet

Mitt Romney said his Cabinet and White House staff will be stacked with men and women from the business world, but his top advisers sketched out a team composed of many familiar faces in Washington.

Already on the inside track: several veterans of George W. Bush’s administration and a number of women — but not necessarily a single Democrat. The choices are still months off — and behind in the polls, Romney is hardly preoccupied with his transition just yet — but it is possible to chart a more detailed early look at a potential Romney Cabinet than was possible for Bush or Barack Obama at this stage of their campaigns. And one name advisers return to time and again is a person little-known to most Americans: Mike Leavitt, a fellow Mormon who is creating a government-in-waiting plan for Romney. Leavitt is the prototypical Romney Cabinet pick — loyal, low-key and diligent, just the kind of person Romney likes to surround himself with. Leavitt did two jobs for Bush: ran the Environmental Protection Agency and the Health and Human Services Department and is a lock for one of the most important jobs if he wants it — White House chief of staff or Treasury secretary, the advisers said.