Massachusetts: Obama Administration

Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein is slated to become a top regulatory official in President-elect Barack Obama's administration, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

Sunstein will head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the Washington Post reports, citing an anonymous transition official.

After emerging last week as a frontrunner for the job, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan has been selected by President-elect Barack Obama to be his solicitor general, according to an email Kagan sent to Harvard Law students and obtained by PolitickerMA.com.

"I am writing to all of you - the community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Harvard Law School - to let you know that today President-elect Barack Obama will announce his intention to nominate me to serve as solicitor general of the United States," Kagan wrote in the email.

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy applauded President-elect Barack Obama's appointment of former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday.

Kennedy, a Hyannis Port Democrat, has made reforming health care to provide universal health insurance among his top priorities in the next Congress, stepping down from his post on the Judiciary Committee to focus on that goal.

Massachusetts' U.S. Senate delegation will likely have the most influence over who President-elect Barack Obama appoints as the next U.S. Attorney for the Bay State, a former U.S. Attorney said this week.

Wayne Budd, who served as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts in George H.W. Bush's administration, told PolitickerMA.com that since U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry are Democrats like the president-elect, Obama will likely defer to their judgment.