D.C.’s new mayor-elect, Muriel Bowser appoints general counsel, other senior aides – The Washington Post

December 31, 2014

Washington Post –Mayor-elect Muriel E. Bowser named several senior aides Tuesday, including the leader of a well-respected network of public-interest nonprofit policy centers to serve as her chief legal counsel.

Betsy Cavendish will leave the presidency of Appleseed to join the District government as the mayor’s general counsel. She becomes the second person in that post to join the District government; in 2007, Linda Singer left Appleseed to become D.C. attorney general, then a mayor-appointed office.

Now Cavendish becomes the first mayoral lawyer tasked with working alongside an elected attorney general, Karl A. Racine, who will be sworn in alongside Bowser on Friday. The top lawyers at most city agencies will continue to report to the mayor’s office, while Racine will retain the power to render opinions on matters of policy and legislation.

Before joining Appleseed in 2007, Cavendish was legal director and interim president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the well-known advocacy group for abortion rights. She also served in the U.S. Justice Department’s prestigious Office of Legal Counsel during the early years of the Clinton administration.

Bowser’s chief scheduler will be Sean Floyd, a D.C. area native who has served in recent years as operations director for a series of high-profile Democratic political campaigns — most recently, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s losing re-election campaign. Previously, Floyd worked for the winning mayoral campaign of Bill de Blasio in New York and the President Barack Obama’s successful re-election effort in Pennsylvania.

via Muriel Bowser appoints general counsel, other senior aides – The Washington Post.

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