Panel chooses Woburn City Clerk William Campbell for top OCPF job

The panel that has been searching for a new director for the Office of Campaign and Political Finance was unanimous Friday in its selection of Woburn City Clerk William Campbell to lead the independent agency that has oversight of the changing world of political campaigns.

The search committee -- Secretary of State William Galvin, Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford, Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons and Boston College Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau -- interviewed four finalists this month and met via Zoom on Friday to share their thoughts and select their choice for the next OCPF head.

Each member of the search committee named Campbell, who ran against Galvin in 2010 as a Republican, among their top two choices. After each search committee member offered some thoughts on their top two choices, Galvin moved to offer the job to Campbell and there was no dissent.

Another finalist, OCPF's current director of auditing Shane Slater, was in the top two of three of the four committee members and all four men agreed that it is important to maintain some institutional memory at OCPF.

The group also agreed Friday to have a conversation with Campbell "about the agency and continuity of current employees, in particular Mr. Slater," Galvin said.

The secretary of state also mentioned talking with Campbell about the changing nature of campaigns and how OCPF fits in. Campbell, if he accepts the job, would be the first new director at OCPF since the retiring Michael Sullivan took charge of the agency about 27 years ago.

"What's kind of interesting is how much the role of the office has evolved over those 27 years, first of all with statutory changes that have expanded the jurisdiction to include a lot of offices that were not initially involved ... and also some of the other things that have occurred related to what has changed in electoral politics with PACs and their role, and other groups and expenditures, independent expenditures, and ballot questions," Galvin said at the start of Friday's meeting. "So, in a sense, it's kind of a momentous choice."

Campbell is a 1982 Boston College graduate and also earned a degree from Bridgeport School of Law. In 1990, Campbell, then a private practice attorney, ran for Woburn's open state representative seat, garnering 7,024 votes but losing to Democrat Carol Donovan, who won 8,420 votes.

The search committee plans to schedule a meeting with Campbell to discuss compensation and to finalize the hire in the coming weeks.