Dan Watkins, a real estate attorney who was an adviser to President Obama’s presidential campaign in Kansas, said he is no longer interested in becoming Kansas’ U.S. Attorney, The Associated Press reported.  Watkins previously declined to endorse reports that he had been recommended to become the district’s next top prosecutor.

Watkins told The AP that the more he considered the position the more he wanted to stay in his current job. “I think it fits best for me to keep doing what I’m doing,” Watkins told The Lawrence Journal-World. He added, “I like what I’m doing.”

Dan Watkins, a real estate attorney who was an advisor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in Kansas, is downplaying an Associated Press report that said he “confirmed that he has been recommended for the top federal law enforcement post in the state.”

“What I told the person was, ‘there’s no story, come back in three weeks,’” Watkins told Main Justice in an interview. (Sounds like a potential candidate to us.)

But the Kansas City Star wrote in this blog post in February that Watkins was a lock for the U.S. Attorney post. The reporter, Steve Kraske, said the “secret” of Watkins’ appointment “[had] been out for a while.”

When questioned about the blog post by Main Justice, Watkins dismissed it as “old.” “I don’t want to be presumptuous,” he said. “I’m not a nominee at this point. I don’t know where the process is at this point.”

Watkins contributed $2,250 to the Obama campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Kansas City Star calls him an ally of Kathleen Sebelius, who campaigned for Obama as governor of Kansas and now serves as secretary of Health and Human Services.

The last presidentially appointed U.S. Attorney in Kansas was Eric F. Melgren, who held the position from 2002 to 2008, when he became a federal judge. Lanny D. Welch is now running the office.

According to The AP, the White House consulted with Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). Brownback’s spokesman told The AP the vetting process is still ongoing. The only Democrat in the Kansas delegation is Rep. Dennis Moore of Kansas City.

A Kansas man is accused of sending an envelope containing white powder and a threatening note to a prosecutor who’d helped put him in prison.

John Phillip Barker was charged Friday with mailing what he claimed was anthrax to Assistant U.S. Attorney David C. Smith at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City, Kan. Barker is serving a prison sentence for mailing a similar letter to the Internal Revenue Service. Smith prosecuted Barker in the 2008 IRS case, according to court records.

Part of the evidence against Barker: He allegedly can’t spell. The note to Smith referred to the white substance as “antrax.” That spelling “was consistent with the spelling of ‘antrax’ that was employed by defendant Barker in the last case where he mailed threats to the IRS,” the complaint says.

The note to Smith read, ”YOU HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO ANTRAX DIE.” Read the criminal complaint here and the affidavit in support of the complaint here.

The FBI wasted time and money determining that the powder was harmless, the complaint says. A Kansas U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson declined to comment.