The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Bitterly divided on party lines, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted Friday to name former FBI and CIA chief William Webster as head of a new board to oversee the scandal-plagued accounting industry.

The 3-2 vote for Mr. Webster at a public meeting came after rancorous discussion among the five SEC commissioners. The two Democrats were angry and disappointed because they had supported another candidate widely viewed as advocating tough regulation of the accounting industry.

Commissioner Roel Campos, one of the two Democrats, said the selection of Mr. Webster feeds the perception that the SEC has been influenced by the accounting industry. He said the new five-member oversight board is being "born with a scar" because it was "subjected to the approval of the accounting lobby."

Mr. Campos and Commissioner Harvey Goldschmid had supported pension fund head John H. Biggs for the job.

SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt made an emotional defense of his choice of Mr. Webster. He accused Mr. Campos of alleging a lobbying effort against Mr. Biggs by the accounting industry while he himself has made "an intense lobbying effort in favor of Mr. Biggs."

Also selected as members of the new board were Daniel Goelzer, a former SEC general counsel; Kayla Gillan, a former official of the California state pension fund; Willis Gradison Jr., a former Ohio congressman; and Charles Niemeier, chief accountant in the SEC's enforcement division.