U.S. secretary of the interior (1909–11) whose land-use policy contributed to the rift between the conservative and progressive factions in the Republican party.

As the reform mayor of Seattle, Wash. (1904–06), Ballinger attracted the attention of the Theodore Roosevelt administration, and in 1907 he was appointed commissioner of the General Land Office. In 1909 he became secretary of the interior in the Cabinet of Pres. William Howard Taft. During his two years in that post Ballinger sought to make public resources more available for private exploitation and became embroiled in a highly publicized controversy with Gifford Pinchot (Pinchot, Gifford), chief of the Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. Citing allegations brought by a public-land inspector, Pinchot charged that Ballinger had cooperated with private interests in a fraudulent scheme to plunder coal reserves in Alaska. Taft supported his secretary and dismissed both Pinchot and his informant, Louis Glavis. Although a Congressional investigation exonerated Ballinger, the episode left a residue of bitterness between the conservative Republicans led by Taft and the progressives loyal to Theodore Roosevelt.