WASHINGTON -- SEC commissioner Richard Roberts has switched party affiliations and become a Republican.
As a result, President Clinton could nominate a Democrat to the Securities and Exchange Commission, although anyone named would have to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
Securities laws dictate that no more than three SEC commissioners can hold the same political party affiliation.
Before Roberts switched parties, he, SEC chairman Arthur Levitt, and Steven Wallman were all Democrats, meaning the seat recently vacated by Mary Shapiro and the one about to be vacated by J. Carter Beese Jr. would have to be filled with Republicans or independents.
Shapiro became chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last month and Beese is expected to leave the SEC soon to join the Center for Strategic and International Studies here.
Roberts said in an interview Friday that he switched parties after Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama became a Republican last week.
"From a political standpoint my politics have always been Shelby politics. If Shelby's a Republican, then I'm a Republican," Roberts said. "It doesn't make any difference from a securities standpoint because securities are nonpartisan issues."
Roberts worked for Shelby for more than 10 years off and on in the House and the Senate before joining a law firm in Alabama and then the Securities and Exchange Commission.
-- Lynn Stevens Hume
