Incoming House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has named Ray Baum, formerly senior policy advisory and chief strategist for the committee, as the committee's new staff director.
He replaces Gary Andres. Current E&C Chair Fred Upton (R-Ore.) was term limited so will be stepping down when the new Congress is seated in January.
Baum was named VP of government relations for the National Association of Broadcasters in March.
Baum was a senior advisor to Walden, who has been chair of the Communications Subcommittee, when he came to Washington in 2011. He got an expanded role as senior policy advisor to the full committee in 2013.
Baum was also majority leader of the Oregon House of Representatives---he and Walden were elected to the Oregon State House in 1988. Before that he was a commissioner with the Oregon Public Utility Commission, including chairman in 2010.
He was also chairman of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Telecommunications Committee.
Baum's name surfaced as a candidate for the Republican seat of Commissioner Robert McDowell back in 2013, a post that ultimately went to Michael O'Rielly.
