Getting to Know FCC Hopeful Clyburn

Apparently, Mignon Clyburn, a member of the Public Service Commission of South Carolina, will be tapped to serve on the Federal Communications Commission. She could replace Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, whose FCC term expired last year, but who may continue serving at the FCC until the end of this year or until a replacement is appointed. Clyburn has been on the SC PSC for eleven years and is the daughter of one of the most powerful men on Capitol Hill, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. In South Carolina, the PSC has jurisdiction over telecommunications, investor-owned electric and natural gas companies, privately-owned water and sewer companies as well as some transportation systems (passenger carriers, household goods movers and hazardous waste for disposal carriers). The state's General Assembly elects PSC commissioners to four-year terms. Clyburn was first elected in 1998; her current term ends June 30, 2010. Clyburn chaired the PSC from 2002 until 2004. She also ran The Coastal Times -- a small, weekly African-American newspaper in Charleston -- from 1984 when she graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BS in banking, finance and economics to when she was first elected to the PSC in 1998.