Current Position: White House Counsel
Credit: Linda Davidson/TWP
Why He Matters
From his post at Perkins Coie in Washington, D.C., Bauer emerged as the attorney of choice for the Democratic Party, and for President Barack Obama. During the first year of the administration, he held three top titles as personal counsel to the president, attorney for Obama on political matters and chief counsel at the Democratic National Committee. When Gregory Craig resigned as White House Counsel over criticism of his mangement of closing Guantanamo Bay, Bauer stepped in as the White House lawyer.
Bauer is one of the nation’s pre-eminent experts on election and campaign finance law, and his views are enormously influential with Democrats. He reportedly has sway over the party’s nominations to the Federal Election Commission.
Bauer worked as general counsel for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and has served as Obama's personal lawyer, representing him on such matters as the probe into ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.). His DNC job put in him charge, legally speaking, of Obama's political organization, Organizing for America.
Bauer posted regular commentary about campaign law at his blog. He has also written three books on the subject. He is married to outgoing White House Communucations Director Anita Dunn, who announced she was stepping down from her White House post only days before Bauer announced he was stepping in.
At a Glance
Current Position: Incoming White House Counsel (starting December 2009)
Career History: Personal lawyer to President Barack Obama, Democratic National Committee attorney (Jan. 2009 to Dec. 2009); Chair of the Political Law Group at Perkins Coie LLP (since 2007); General Counsel, Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign (since 2007)
Birthday: N/A
Hometown: N/A
Alma Mater: Harvard University, 1973
J.D., University of Virginia Law School, 1976
Spouse: Anita Dunn
Office: 607 Fourteenth Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005-2003
Phone: 202-434-1602
Email
Website
Path to Power
Bauer got a taste for politics when he worked as a volunteer for Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.) during his failed 1968 presidential run. In the summer of 1969, while he was still a student at the Phillips Exeter Academy prep school, Bauer dialed up Capitol Hill offices until he landed a summer job with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Bauer continued to work summer jobs on the Hill while he attended Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1973. He earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School in 1976 and landed a job in the Carter administration working on energy issues.
Bauer then went to work in the private sector as an associate at Dechert, Price and Rhoads in Washington. His desire to work on behalf of the Democratic Party eventually led him to his permanent home at Perkins Coie.
Bauer served as an outside counsel to Tom Daschle during the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton in 1999. He participated in daily strategy sessions with Democratic leaders and helped them craft responses to the legal arguments put forth by Republicans.
When Bill Bradley decided to run for the presidency in 2000, Bauer came on board as his general counsel and sometimes took part in debate practice with the former senator.
Hoping to avoid the mistakes of Al Gore in 2000, Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) presidential campaign mounted a nationwide legal offensive in 2004, headed by Bauer, to maximize voter turnout and ward off registration challenges. While serving on Kerry’s team Bauer also provided legal assistance to America Coming Together, a massive Democratic-run 527 group that raised $143 million dollars in soft money for voter mobilization and election ads.
Bauer reprised his role as election watchdog during the 2008 presidential campaign. As general counsel for President Barack Obama (D-Ill.) during the Democratic primaries, he challenged a $1 million independent ad campaign in Indiana launched by union groups supporting Obama’s primary rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), arguing it was illegal.
Bauer drew some unwanted attention the Obama campaign in June 2007 when he penned a controversial piece on Huffington Post arguing liberals should want President George W. Bush to pardon convicted former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
Bauer was at the center of Obama’s decision to forgo public financing in the general election. He claimed he met with Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) legal counsel, Trevor Potter, to discuss the issue and discovered they were not making a “good-faith effort” to establish a fair system.The McCain campaign vigorously disputed Bauer’s account of the meeting and said there were never any formal negotiations between the campaigns about public financing.
The Issues
Bauer is critical of campaign finance regulations passed by Congress in recent years. While he admitted that the complexity of the legal code has given him a successful career, he nonetheless feels many of the regulations are burdensome and unnecessary.
In 2001,
Daschle asked Bauer to give presentations to Democrats on the campaign finance bill sponsored by
McCain and Sen.
Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) that outlawed soft money. Bauer said he outlined the bill’s implications “from a party perspective,” but didn’t tell anyone how to vote on it.
Many on Capitol Hill felt Bauer was trying to undermine the legislation, and
Feingold voiced his frustration. “Almost every time senators come up to me with a problem with the bill they said they met with Bob Bauer,” Feingold said. “I don’t know who led him to do it, but Bob Bauer has more influence on this bill than any Senator.”
The Network
B
auer’s legal team at Perkins Coie has worked on behalf of many leading lawmakers, including Tom Daschle, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), former House Speaker Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif).
Bauer is married to Democratic media consultant and White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, who was one of Obama’s senior media advisers during the 2008 presidential campaign.
(photos Linda Davidson /TWP)
