Businessman Nominated for Federal Panel : Politics: Dana Point investor and GOP fund-raiser Gus Owen is Clinton’s choice for ICC. Senate must confirm his appointment.

An Orange County businessman and prominent Republican Party fund-raiser has been tapped to fill a vacancy on the Interstate Commerce Commission, a federal agency that regulates transportation from trucking and bus companies to barge lines and coal slurry pipes.

Gus A. Owen, a Dana Point real estate investor and former chairman of the conservative Lincoln Club, said his nomination will be announced Monday to fill a Republican vacancy on the five-member commission.

For weeks, Republican insiders have been predicting that Owen’s appointment is a fait accompli even though he still faces a Senate confirmation hearing.

Republicans such as Gov. Pete Wilson and Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) shepherded Owen’s nomination, but the businessman also has solid ties to the White House.

His wife, developer Kathryn Thompson, backed then-candidate Bill Clinton, a Democrat, during his 1992 President campaign in a widely publicized Republican defection that included seven other well-known Orange County business and political leaders. After she announced her favorite, Thompson resigned as a board member of the Lincoln Club, an organization that has been a political forum for the GOP business elite for the last three decades.

On Saturday, Owen, 60, said that he is looking forward to playing a role as the only businessman on the commission.

“I have criticized government for so long that it’s quite exciting to try to do something about it,” Owen said. “My focus will be on helping the trucking and rail industry to become more competitive and bring it back to strength. It’s the lifeblood of the nation.”

Commission members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. By law, no more than three members can be appointed from the same political party.

Owen, a 20-year member of the Lincoln Club, also was appointed by Gov. Wilson in 1991 to a six-year term on the state Fish and Game Commission.

Owen was born on an Oklahoma tenant farm and has lived in Orange County for more than four decades. In 1972, he started Nelow Development Co., which built about 1,500 apartments over a six-year span. Later he founded Owen Properties Inc., which developed, acquired and managed office buildings and industrial parks.