An obscure figure just a few months ago, JEFF HAUSER has now become the media’s go-to left-wing critic of the incoming Biden administration.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, POLITICO and more have each quoted him prominently in several articles in the past month or so. He’s gone international, too, with his quotes featured in The Guardian, The Independent, Channel NewsAsia, Chile’s Diario Financiero, and even Vietnam’s “Viet Giai Tri.” Transition Playbook even set up a Google Alert for his name to help track competitors’ stories about the transition.

As the executive director of the Revolving Door Project, which is housed in the left-leaning think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research, Hauser often takes aim at senior Biden aides with corporate ties or those who have lobbied in the past — even if it was years ago. His willingness to criticize potential Biden Cabinet picks on the record has helped reporters — including us! — write stories on at least some of the left’s frustration with Biden before and after he won the presidency.

"The problem Biden has is, he views people he got to know before they were lobbyists as still not lobbyists,” Hauser told The Wall Street Journal last month. “Being close friends does not make you better adept at figuring out people’s motives. Past work tends to be more predictive of that.” He's gotten so many calls that he sent an email to several POLITICO reporters last week with a list of different people to ring for quotes.

But Democrats in and around the transition have grown frustrated by the endless purity tests they see Hauser pushing and believe he’s further dividing the party at a precarious moment.

“While Democrats spent the past four years organizing to beat Donald Trump, Jeff was instead out there doing opposition research on potential Democratic appointees for a then-fictitious administration,” said one Democratic operative in touch with the Biden transition team. “Reporters should work harder to determine whether he’s representing a movement or just representing himself.”

Some also suggest that Hauser doesn’t pass his own test, noting that he briefly worked as a lobbyist for an immigration rights group in 2007, as part of a push to help pass the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill. That bill, which ultimately failed, also included more funds for border security and fencing, positions the left-wing has grown critical of and criticized Biden for.

“I was an insignificant player in trying to get immigration reform done in 2007,” Hauser told Transition Playbook. “I think it’s fascinating that a Democrat would compare lobbying for immigration reform and corporate lobbying and view them as essentially the same thing.” (Hauser in November did try to distinguish the two forms of lobbying. “We don’t think lobbying is bad, we think corporate lobbying is bad,” he told Roll Call.)

Hauser also defended his critiques of the Biden transition: “If people in Washington think I’m unique in finding business-as-usual in Washington gross, I think they are pretty disconnected from political reality,” he said.

And he said the Biden team has not reached out to him in response to his constant missives, but it wouldn’t matter to him if they did: “This is what we are designed to do. I’m not looking for access. I’m not looking for a job.” The Biden team declined to comment.

Are you in touch with Biden’s transition team? Do you work in an agency preparing (or not preparing) for the transfer of power? Are you SHUWANZA GOFF? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: [email protected]. You can also reach Alex, Theo, Megan, Alice, Tyler and Daniel individually if you prefer. We’re nicer than Hauser, SHUWANZA!

In Wilmington, Del., where he spoke about the final jobs report of the year. He then met virtually with the National Association of Counties’ board of directors.

With Biden for the National Association of Counties meeting.

CALIFORNIA ACTIVISTS V. NICHOLS — ZACK COLMAN and DEBRA KAHN report that environmental justice groups are looking to derail the potential appointment of veteran California air regulator MARY NICHOLS to helm the Biden EPA, lodging complaints that she has failed to tackle the pollution threatening low-income areas and communities of color.

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In a joint CNN interview, Biden and Harris address the critique that there has not been enough diversity among their top personnel picks thus far.

THREE NEW NAMES FOR HHS SECRETARY — Biden is eyeing three new candidates for Health and Human Services secretary, people familiar with the discussions tell ADAM CANCRYN and SUSANNAH LUTHI: California Attorney General XAVIER BECERRA, former Michigan Gov. JENNIFER GRANHOLM and SYLVIA MATHEWS BURWELL, who ran the department during the Obama administration. Becerra has also been mentioned as a potential attorney general.

MOVE OVER, MARCIA AND HEIDI: There a few more names to add to the list of Biden’s potential Agriculture secretaries, beyond Rep. MARCIA FUDGE (D-Ohio) and former Sen. HEIDI HEITKAMP (D-N.D.). LIZ CRAMPTON, HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH and MEGAN CASSELLA report that allies are aggressively pushing the Biden transition to consider KATHLEEN MERRIGAN, a former deputy Agriculture secretary in the Obama administration, and ARTURO RODRIGUEZ, former leader of the United Farm Workers union. Former Agriculture Secretary TOM VILSACK, a loyal Biden surrogate, is also a possibility.

The Biden transition team was on the verge of announcing its selection of Heitkamp early last week, four people familiar with the deliberations said. But then Rep. JIM CLYBURN (D-S.C.), who’s been pushing for Fudge, gave several interviews criticizing Biden for a lack of diversity among his first round of Cabinet appointees, and the race is now considered more open.

The Congressional Black Caucus is standing with Fudge. Rep. JOYCE BEATTY (D-Ohio), the caucus’ just-elected chair, told LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ today that she and other members are “hopeful that we'll add Congresswoman Marcia Fudge as the Agriculture secretary with her wealth of knowledge and experience in the field and as a lawyer and someone who’s a scholar.”

FLOURNOY GETS BACKUP: Seven female House Democrats sent a letter today urging Biden to select MICHÉLE FLOURNOY as his secretary of Defense, DANIEL LIPPMAN flagged for us. “We hope you will give her candidacy your strongest consideration and help break the Pentagon’s glass ceiling,” they wrote.

The signees include: Reps. JACKIE SPEIER (D-Calif.), LOIS FRANKEL (D-Fla.), JULIA BROWNLEY (D-Calif.), VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-Texas), ANNA ESHOO (D-Calif.), LIZZIE FLETCHER (D-Texas) and ANN KUSTER (D-N.H.).

It’s the latest sign of female policymakers organizing on behalf of Flournoy, long considered the frontrunner for the post. In recent days, however, she’s taken fire from progressives and from Congressional Black Caucus members who want Biden to pick a Black Defense secretary (Flournoy is white).

PICK A BLACK WOMAN AS SOLICITOR GENERAL, GROUPS URGE: Demand Justice is asking Biden to select a Black woman to be the administration’s top lawyer at the Supreme Court — and imploring him not to pick several well-known Democratic attorneys who frequently argue before the court, Theo reports.

In a letter to Biden's transition team this week, Demand Justice and half a dozen other groups argued Biden’s solicitor general appointment should serve as a kind of down payment on Biden’s pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.

Among the seven names they suggested: LEONDRA KRUGER, who served in the solicitor general’s office during the Obama administration and is now a California Supreme Court justice, and SHERRILYN IFILL, who leads the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

PAST AND POSSIBLY FUTURE ENERGY SECRETARY ERNEST MONIZ defends natural gas as climate transition fuel, via KARL MATHIESEN

LOOMING STUDENT LOAN FIGHT — Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) penned an op-ed Friday calling on Biden to use an executive order to “cancel” up to $50,000 in student loan debt On Day 1 of his presidency. It’s an early preview of what could become one of the most contentious debates between the left wing and the center of the party. With Schumer on board, it’ll be harder for the Biden team to ignore the issue.

The chair of President BARACK OBAMA’s Council of Economic Advisers, JASON FURMAN, recently poked the bear of left-wing Twitter by arguing that the plan is “arbitrary” and “regressive” with very limited actual stimulus effect. Some political strategists have also speculated about the wisdom of the party catering to college graduates as people without college degrees continue to flee the Democratic Party.

ADD IT TO THE TO-DO LIST: Among the many policy conundrums awaiting Biden’s administration in January is how to revamp a U.S.-EU data privacy agreement. The European Union’s highest court threw out the prior agreement in July, creating legal and regulatory headaches for firms that collectively conduct billions of dollars of transatlantic commerce, STEVEN OVERLY and MARK SCOTT report.

FIRST IN TRANSITION PLAYBOOK: Biden senior aide and transition co-chair ANITA DUNN will be participating in a post-election debrief with Planned Parenthood Action Fund on Monday at noon.

TRUMP ADDS MORE LOYALISTS AT THE PENTAGON — Daniel, JACQUELINE FELDSCHER and LARA SELIGMAN report the White House axed nine members of the Pentagon’s Defense Business Board on Friday and installed people loyal to Trump in their place, including COREY LEWANDOWSKI and DAVID BOSSIE.

Members of the board received a brief email from JOSHUA WHITEHOUSE, the White House liaison to the Department of Defense, that simply said, “if you are receiving this e-mail, your membership on the Defense Business Board has expired or is coming to an end.”

Rep. Danny Davis: Emanuel “expressed interest” in Transportation post (Business Insider)

Who will lead NOAA under Biden? (The Washington Post)

More potential Biden picks for climate and environmental roles (The New York Times)

Finkenauer talked to transition about becoming Labor secretary (The Associated Press)