3 Names Are in the Hat for Nomination to SEC

The White House is considering three candidates for a seat on the Securities and Exchange Commission being vacated by Steven M.H. Wallman, according to administration, congressional and regulatory sources.

The three are White House lobbyist Paul R. Carey, a son of former New York Gov. Hugh Carey; Mozelle W. Thompson, a deputy assistant secretary at Treasury; and Harvey J. Goldschmid, a law professor at Columbia University and counsel to the law firm Arnold & Porter, the sources said.

President Clinton is expected to select a nominee before the end of summer. Wallman, a Democratic appointee whose term expired last month, has said he wants to leave the SEC by Labor Day.

The name of Wallman’s replacement will be sent to the Senate for confirmation along with that of Laura Unger, an aide to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.).

Unger has long been expected to fill the vacant Republican seat on the five-member commission, but D’Amato’s hearings last year on Whitewater caused the White House to sit on the nomination, the sources said.

D’Amato has made White House approval of Unger’s nomination a condition for filling Wallman’s seat, according to congressional and administration sources.

The SEC, which has four members today, has not had a full complement of commissioners since July 1994.

Carey, 34, special assistant to the president for legislative affairs, is considered the leading contender by the sources because of his White House and congressional connections.

Early on in the 1992 presidential campaign, Carey joined Clinton as a fund-raiser in New York state, where he has connections to important Democratic supporters who were not then familiar with the Arkansas governor.

On Wall Street, Carey, a graduate of Colgate University, worked as a municipal bond salesman and investment banker at First Albany Corp. He has covered securities and banking issues on Capitol Hill for the administration and is well-regarded on both sides of the aisle, according to congressional sources.

Thompson, who joined the Treasury Department in 1993, has overseen the sale of several U.S. government-owned entities as part of the administration’s privatization efforts. He also leads the Treasury’s initiatives on the financing of the District of Columbia.

Goldschmid, 57, is a noted expert in securities law and has the support of the securities bar as well as of SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr., according to sources close to the two.