HispanicBusiness

Unlike many of President Barack Obama's controversial cabinet picks, the new leader of the U.S. Small Business Administration last week enjoyed unanimous Senate approval, with nary a peep of protest from a single legislator.

Karen Mills -- 55, a venture capitalist, Tootsie Roll heiress and registered Democrat -- has been welcomed by legislators on both sides of the aisle. Also pleased is the National Small Business Association, the oldest small-business advocacy organization in the United States.

But not everyone is cheering.

Perhaps chief among the chagrined is Lloyd Chapman, president of a watchdog group called the American Small Business League, which was an indefatigable critic of the federal agency during the George W. Bush years. Most notably, the league has assailed the SBA for allowing contracts meant for small businesses to be awarded to Fortune 500 companies. League associates say they have successfully sued the SBA five times under the Freedom of Information Act since 2003.

Chapman, who campaigned vigorously for President Obama, told HispanicBusiness.com that he is deeply disappointed in his pick for the SBA's top post.

"I know all you need to know about her," said Chapman, a featured blogger for the Huffington Post. "She sits on the board of directors of a handful of Fortune 1,000 companies. She is about the furthest thing from a small-business person you're going to be able to find."

What's more, he added, Mill's parents -- Melvin and Ellen Gordon, who have run Tootsie Roll Industries since the 1960s -- stated publicly in 2005 that they intend to keep the business in the family.

"Sometime any minute now, she's going to inherit a multi-billion dollar international candy company," he said.

A spokesman for the SBA declined to comment on the speculation that she may eventually take the reins at Tootsie. But the spokesman, Jonathan Swain, said Mills -- who was officially sworn in Monday as the department's administrator -- has plenty of experience working with small businesses.

As an example, Swain cited how Mills once helped secure a $15 million grant from the Department of Labor to provide workforce training and development for the boat-building industry in Maine, where she lives.

"Over the last several weeks, I've gotten to know her," he said. "She's talked very compellingly about being a kid sitting at the dining-room table, hearing her grandfather talk about his own small manufacturing company in New England."

In her professional life, he added, she has worked as an investor and operational manager of small businesses all over the country.

For her part, Mills, speaking at last week's confirmation hearing, said her top priority will be to "unstick" the frozen credit markets.

"The SBA must continue executing the plans in the Recovery Act and get capital flowing again through the core SBA loan programs," she said. She also said many struggling small businesses will soon receive a $35,000 "lifeline" loan with a 100 percent guarantee to banks lending the cash.