WASHINGTON -- It's taken 18 years of accumulating seniority, backbench toiling on policy issues large and small, generous campaign donations to fellow Republicans and a GOP takeover of the U.S. House, but Rep. Spencer Bachus will finally get the gavel he's always wanted.

House Republicans on Wednesday promoted Bachus to chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which has wide jurisdiction over banks, capital markets, housing, consumer credit and the overall health of the American financial system. Come January, the 62-year-old lawyer from Vestavia Hills will be in the national limelight as the new Republican majority prepares to rework the landmark Wall Street reforms passed earlier this year.

The promotion caps a multiyear strategy by Bachus to rise through the ranks and take the reins of a major congressional committee that is key to the banking community in his backyard and nationally. With Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., as the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, it further cements Alabama's legislative power on issues that affect the industry and consumers.

"I think it's tremendously important for Alabama. There are a lot of states which have a significant banking community but don't have a voice in many policies that affect them," said Palmer Hamilton, an Alabama lawyer and lobbyist who represents financial institutions in Congress.

Chairmanships are a rarity in the 435-member House. Bachus is the first Republican from Alabama to chair a House committee since the 19th century. And he joins an unusually long list of Alabama members of Congress who have chaired banking committees, including Democrats Sen. John Sparkman and Rep. Henry Steagall.

"Spencer has worked long and hard on these issues and has earned the gavel of the Financial Services Committee," Shelby said Wednesday.

Bachus, in an interview Wednesday night, said he brings a "main street" perspective to the committee, as opposed to Wall Street.

"In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks," he said.

He later clarified his comment to say that regulators should set the parameters in which banks operate but not micromanage them.

TARP turbulence

Bachus has spent the last four years as the ranking Republican on the banking committee, the counterpart to chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and it wasn't without controversy. He irritated some of his GOP colleagues during the crisis negotiations over the $700 billion economic rescue package back in 2008, and they replaced him as their lead bargainer in the talks. He eventually supported the Troubled Assets Relief Program, but quickly became a critic of how President George W. Bush's administration was implementing it. Soon after, he survived a challenge to his ranking position, a sign that he has loyal friends inside the Republican caucus, many of whom he has showered with campaign contributions over the years.

In the 2009-10 election cycle, the finance/ insurance/real estate sector gave Bachus' campaign account $752,200, most of it from political action committees, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Democrats Wednesday were critical of that connection.

"Republicans putting Spencer Bachus in charge of financial regulation is voting for the fox to guard the henhouse," said Ryan Rudominer of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

But Bachus is not alone in accepting huge donations from the industries that the committee oversees. Outgoing chairman Frank accepted $986,000 from the sector over the last two years, according to the center.

In his quiet campaign for the chairmanship, Bachus promoted an agenda to end taxpayer subsidies for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, repeal those parts of the Wall Street reforms that he thinks still leave the door open for taxpayer bailouts of financial institutions or their creditors, and increase oversight of President Barack Obama's administration.

"Now is the time to get government out of the way so businesses can create jobs and grow the economy," Bachus said.