Guessing game begins for next FCC Chairman

While Federal Communications Commission appointments might not be the plum posts for presidential job-seekers, the person selected has a wide latitude in setting the telecommunications agenda for what is one of the most important government positions in the "knowledge economy." Even as there are still three candidates vying to be leader of the free world, it's not too early to begin speculation who would be chairman of the FCC. If Sen. Hillary Clinton takes the prize, Susan Ness is the name bandied about among the tele-cognesceti. Aside from being close to the Clintons, Ness makes an attractive candidate for the commission's top job as it would allow the first female president to select the first female FCC chairman. If Sen. Barack Obama wins, his campaign and Senate staffs are dotted with people who have close ties to the FCC. Connecting those dots, however, is Julius Genachowski, a former aide to former-FCC Chairmen Reed Hundt and Bill Kennard and a close friend of Obama's since they attended Harvard Law School. He is a major fundraiser for the senator. Aside from commission experience, Genachowski was an executive at Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. and a managing director at digital media specialist Rock Creek Ventures and is a special adviser to the private-equity group General Atlantic. Other names associated with Obama include his policy director Karen Kornbluh, who also worked at the commission under Hundt and Kennard, and Don Gipps, an FCC veteran who was former Vice President Al Gore's domestic policy adviser and is now a top executive at Level 3, an Internet "backbone" operator. Larry Stcikling, a former chief of the FCC Common Carrier Bureau and an Obama campaign worker, also has been mentioned for the post. The two Democrats on the FCC -- Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein -- also can't be ruled out. If Sen. John McCain wins, possibilities include former staffer and current Disney lobbyist Bill Bailey, Google counsel Pablo Chavez, FCC staffer Maureen McLaughlin, Rick Davis, the campaign manager for McCain 2008, and Charles Black, a top political adviser to McCain's campaign. Black is a lobbyist who counts AT&T among his clients, while Davis has lobbied for Verizon and SBC.
http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN2429880620080324