Obama Expected to Make Long-Awaited Texas U.S. Attorney Nomination
President Barack Obama is expected to nominate a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas who is backed by the state?s Republican senators, but was not recommended by his party?s own House members, The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday.
The nomination of Kenneth Magidson, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Houston-based U.S. Attorney?s office, could come as soon as next week. If nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, Magidson would become the first appointed U.S. Attorney from the Obama administration to lead one of the four offices.
The state?s Republican senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, recommended in 2009 that Obama nominate Magidson. The Texas House Democrats led by Rep. Lloyd Doggett didn?t publicly announce a recommendation for the post in 2009. But their first choice is lawyer Larry Veselka, a former Harris County Democratic Party chairman, according to The Chronicle.
Home-state senators traditionally recommend candidates to the White House ? unless both of the state?s senators are of different parties than the president. In cases in which senators are of a different party than the president, the White House often relies on House members who are members of the president?s political party.
But in Texas, Doggett and the state?s Republican senators submitted separate lists of U.S. Attorney candidates. Of the six announced U.S. Attorney candidates submitted to Obama in 2009, only two had the support of the Texas House Democrats and Republican senators.
Obama nominated one of those two candidates, John B. Stevens Jr., last year for Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney. But he withdrew his name from consideration after the Senate Judiciary Committee stalled on his confirmation.
Stevens was the only Texas U.S. Attorney nomination made by Obama thus far. Career prosecutors have led the four U.S. Attorneys? offices in the absence of Obama appointees. Texas is one of only a few states that don?t have at least one appointed U.S. Attorney in place.
The Senate has confirmed 76 of Obama?s�U.S. Attorneys thus far. There are 93 U.S. Attorney posts across the nation.
?I?m a little dumbfounded by their inactivity and their unwillingness to move forward,? Cornyn told The Chronicle. ?They haven?t made this a priority.?
White House spokesman Reid Cherlin told Main Justice in March that filling the U.S. Attorney vacancies in Texas ?is a priority? and the White House hoped ?to nominate candidates soon.?
Don DeGabrielle, whom Bush appointed in 2006, resigned as Southern District of Texas U.S. Attorney in November 2008. Jose Angel Moreno has led the office since February 2010.
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