Bush Chooses Telecom Lawyer To Fill Republican FCC Vacancy

[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Arshad Mohammed]
Robert M. McDowell, a telecommunications lawyer who works for CompTel, a trade group that champions the interests of smaller telephone companies against the regional phone giants, is President Bush's choice for the third Republican seat on the Federal Communications Commission. If confirmed by the Senate, McDowell would give FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin a working Republican majority and could allow him to tackle controversial issues like media ownership. McDowell, who has spent most of his career as a telecom lawyer in Washington, has ties to the White House, having led Bush advance teams during the 2004 presidential campaign and served as counsel to the Bush-Cheney Florida Recount Team in 2000. Regulatory analysts said they thought McDowell would easily win Senate confirmation, noting that he has been publicly supported by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska). Mr. McDowell would fill the seat vacated by Kathleen Q. Abernathy last year. The term runs until June 2009. Some analysts said that given his background, McDowell may be inclined to take the side of smaller communications companies as the FCC wades into issues including overhauling the system by which phone companies pay each other for handing off phone traffic as well as the Universal Service Fund that subsidizes service in poor and remote regions. In addition to his telecom expertise, McDowell, 42, has a long-standing interest in politics, having served as chief of staff to a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 1986 and 1987. He ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Virginia state Senate in 1995 and for one in the House of Delegates in 2003. He graduated from Duke University in 1985 and from Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary in 1990. He lives on the small farm where he grew up in Vienna.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR200602...
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* Official announcement from White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060203-9.html

* Nomination at FCC spurs look at media limits
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a27a9ff6-9512-11da-9f39-0000779e2340.html
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* Nominee to Give FCC Republican Majority
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/business/04fcc.html

* Bush to Nominate McDowell for FCC
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6304903.html?display=Breaking+News

* Statement from FCC Chairman Martin:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-263633A1.doc

* Statement from Commissioner Adelstein:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-263643A1.doc

* Statement from Commissioner Tate:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-263646A1.doc