OXFORD – Rick Bennett of Oxford, a former Republican state senator and representative, has been appointed to the president’s Commission of White House Fellowships.
The commission, which comprises between 20 and 30 people, is responsible for interviewing and selecting a handful of young applicants to participate in the yearlong White House Fellows program. According to the White House Web site, the fellows program “offers exceptional young men and women firsthand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government.”
Bennett’s appointment is an “honor not only for the senator, but for the people of Maine,” said Randy Bumps, chairman of the Maine Republican Party.
Bennett, 41, was president of the Maine Senate from 2001 to 2002. He served four terms in the Maine Senate and two terms in the state’s House of Representatives. In 1994, he was the Republican nominee for Congress in Maine’s 2nd District. He currently consults for Lens Governance Advisors, P.A. in Portland, a law firm that promotes accountability in corporate governance.
Bennett, who served last year as vice-chairman for Bush’s re-election campaign in Maine, said Monday, “To be appointed by the president of the United States to any position is a great honor.” He joked, “I did survive the background check.”
Bennett said he looks forward to beginning work with the new commission members in a couple of weeks in Annapolis, Md., where they will meet with, interview and finally decide which of the 31 finalists will fill this year’s 12 available positions as White House fellows.
The members of the commission are “an extraordinary group of people in their own right,” Bennett said. He noted that the chair of the commission is former President Richard Nixon’s daughter, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, who is married to former President Eisenhower’s grandson.
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