McDonald Elected Chairman of Federal Election Commission

For Immediate Release:                                                                                             Contact:   Kelly Huff
December 14, 2000                                                                                                                         Ron Harris
                                                                                                                                                        Sharon Snyder
                                                                                                                                                        Ian Stirton


 


MCDONALD ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION 

-Mason to serve as Vice Chairman-

 

WASHINGTON -- Members of the Federal Election Commission have elected 

Danny L. McDonald as Chairman and David Mason as Vice Chairman for 2001.

In December of each year, Commissioners elect a Chairman and Vice Chairman to serve for
the upcoming calendar year. The Federal Election Campaign Act requires that the Chairman
and Vice Chairman be of different political parties, and states that a member may serve as
Chairman only once during a six-year term of office.

Chairman-elect McDonald, a Democrat, served as Vice Chairman of the Commission in 2000
and has served as Chairman and Vice Chairman in prior terms on the Commission.

Prior to his initial appointment in 1981, the Sand Springs, Oklahoma, native served as
General Administrator of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Additionally, he served as
Secretary of the Tulsa County Election Board and as Chief Clerk of that Board.
Commissioner McDonald was a member of the Advisory Panel to the FEC''''s National
Clearinghouse on Election Administration. He currently is President of the American
Council of Young Political Leaders.

Commissioner McDonald received a B. A. Degree from Oklahoma State University and
attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has served as
a member of the JFK School Advisory Board for State and Local Government.

Vice Chairman-elect Mason, a Republican, was nominated to the Federal Election
Commission by President William Clinton on March 4, 1998 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate
on July 30, 1998. 

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Mason was a Senior Fellow in Congressional Studies at the
Heritage Foundation. He joined Heritage in 1990 and served at various times as Director of
Executive Branch Liaison, Director of the Foundation’s U.S. Congress Assessment
Project, and Vice President, Government Relations.

Commissioner Mason served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, where he managed
the Pentagon’s relations with the U.S. House of Representatives. One of his major
accomplishments there was guiding base closing legislation to a successful conclusion.

He has served on Capitol Hill, as a Legislative Assistant to Senator John Warner,
Legislative Director to Representative Tom Bliley, and Staff Director to then-House
Republican Whip Trent Lott. He was active as a staffer and volunteer in numerous
Congressional, Senate, Gubernatorial and Presidential campaigns, and was himself the
Republican nominee for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 48th District in
1982.

Commissioner Mason attended Lynchburg College in Virginia and graduated cum laude
from Claremont McKenna College in California. He is active in political and community
affairs in northern Virginia and in the home education movement nationally. He and his
wife reside in Lovettsville, Virginia, with their six children.

Created in 1975, the Federal Election Commission is an independent federal agency
established to enforce limitations and prohibitions on contributions to federal candidates
and committees, to require them to disclose their financial activities, and to administer
the public financing program for Presidential elections.

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