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The U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina is likely nearing the end of her tenure in the office as one of an increasingly rare group of long-tenured Republican appointees.

Anna Mills Wagoner and Ripley Rand (Gov)

Anna Mills Wagoner, who has led the Greensboro, N.C.-based U.S. Attorney’s office since 2001, is one of 13 U.S. Attorneys appointed during the George W. Bush administration who are still holding their jobs more than a year and a half after Barack Obama became President.

But Wagoner’s days in office appear to be numbered now that the president has tapped Ripley Rand to replace her.

Former U.S. Attorney Walter C. Holton Jr. of the Middle District of North Carolina, who served from 1994 to 2001, told Main Justice that the White House seemed to take an “awfully long time” to makes its choice of a U.S. Attorney for the district. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) asked Obama in July 2009 to consider Rand for the job.

Holton said the Obama administration appeared to be content with the leadership of Wagoner. U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, but many step down near the start of a new administration. Moreover, after the uproar over the firing of federal prosecutors under former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Justice Department officials are wary of pressuring U.S. Attorneys to step down.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Greensboro did not respond to requests for comment.

“Clearly, she’s doing a good job,” said Holton, who is now an attorney in Winston-Salem, N.C. “There is a comfort level in her ability to manage the office.”

Another North Carolina U.S. Attorney is also among the longer-serving top federal prosecutors. George E. B. Holding, the top federal prosecutor in Raleigh, N.C., has been in office since 2006. Hagan has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to keep Holding so that he can complete several politically sensitive cases involving Democrats.

Holding’s office has been involved in several such inquiries, including an investigation into the campaign finances of former Democratic senator and presidential candidate John Edwards. The office is also examining the activities of the state’s former Democratic governor, Mike Easley.