FEC elects Chairman and Vice Chair for 2010

On December 17, 2009, the Commission unanimously elected Matthew S. Petersen as Chairman and Cynthia L. Bauerly as Vice Chair for 2010. Commissioners Petersen and Bauerly were nominated to the Commission by President George W. Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on June 24, 2008.

Chairman Petersen served as Republican chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration from 2005 until his appointment to the Commission. In this capacity, he provided counsel on issues relating to federal campaign finance and election administration laws as well as the Standing Rules of the Senate.

Chairman Petersen previously served as counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on House Administration. During his tenure, Chairman Petersen was extensively involved in crafting the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) and the House-Senate negotiations that culminated in HAVA's passage. From 1999 to 2002, he specialized in election and campaign finance law at the law firm of Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, D.C.

Chairman Petersen—a native of Mapleton, Utah—received his J.D. in 1999 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Virginia Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Brigham Young University in 1996. He also received an associate degree with high honors from Utah Valley State College.

Prior to her appointment to the Commission, Vice Chair Bauerly served in the United States Senate in the office of Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York as his Legislative Director, and as his counsel on the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committees. Her policy work while on the Hill included a variety of matters, including election reform, campaign finance, technology, telecommunications, intellectual property, antitrust, legal process reform, immigration and ethics.

Vice Chair Bauerly has also worked in private practice in Minnesota and Washington specializing in complex litigation and appellate law, with a focus on intellectual property. She previously served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Florence-Marie Cooper of the United States District Court for the Central District of California and the Honorable Theodore R. Boehm of the Indiana Supreme Court.

Originally from Saint Cloud, Minnesota, Vice Chair Bauerly graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and received both her law degree and a Master of Public Affairs from Indiana University.