New Vice Chair elected

On January 24, 2008, the Commission elected Ellen Weintraub as Vice Chair for 2008. Vice Chair Weintraub was appointed to the Commission on December 6, 2002, renominated on January 9, 2003, and confirmed by unanimous consent of the U.S. Senate on March 18, 2003. She is the third woman to serve on the Commission.

Prior to her appointment, Vice Chair Weintraub was Of Counsel to Perkins Coie LLP and a member of its Political Law group. At Perkins Coie, she counseled clients on federal and state campaign finance laws, political ethics, nonprofit law and lobbying regulation. Her tenure with Perkins Coie represented her second stint in private practice, having previously practiced as a litigator with the New York firm of Cahill Gordon & Reindel. Before joining Perkins Coie, Vice Chair Weintraub was Counsel to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served as editor-in-chief of the House Ethics Manual and as a principal contributor to the Senate Ethics Manual.

Vice Chair Weintraub received her bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Yale College and her law degree from Harvard Law School. A native New Yorker, she is a member of the New York and District of Columbia bars and the Supreme Court bar.