Brian Blanchard (gov)

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Blanchard has been elected the newest judge on the District 4 Court of Appeals in Dane County, Wis., according to the Associated Press. With about two-thirds of the precincts reporting, Blanchard, who is now the Dane County District Attorney,  led Richland County Circuit Judge Edward Leineweber by 63 percent to 37 percent.

The court hears appeals cases from 24 counties in the southern and central portion of the state. Blanchard’s six-year term will begin in August.

Blanchard worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Illinois from 1990 to 1997. He left to office to join a private law firm in Madison where he worked until 2000, when he was first elected Dane County district attorney. He has since won re-election four times.

James Daley (Daley For Mayor)

In related news, former Assistant U.S. Attorney James Daley was elected mayor of Oconomowoc, Wis., over incumbent Maury Sullivan, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. Daley worked as a North Carolina federal prosecutor in 2007.

Vote tallies in the Blanchard-Leineweber race have been corrected.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has released questionnaires for an additional five U.S. Attorney nominees. Information from their Office of Government Ethics disclosures will be added as it becomes available.

• Sally Quillian Yates, Northern District of Georgia
• Anne M. Tompkins, Western District of North Carolina
• William J. Hochul, Jr., Western District of New York
• Andre Birotte Jr., Central District of California
• William N. Nettles, District of South Carolina

Anne Tompkins (Alston and Bird)

Anne M. Tompkins (University of North Carolina at Charlotte, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law) is nominated as U.S. Attorney in the Western District of North Carolina. The Charlotte-based office has been run by U.S. Attorney Ed Ryan since Gretchen Shappert’s resignation in March 2009 to take a job at Justice Department headquarters in Washington.

Tompkins’s vitals:

• Born in Waynesboro, Va., in 1962.
• Earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Has been a partner at Alston & Bird, LLP in Charlotte, N.C., since August 2005.
• Was an adjunct professor at Charlotte School of Law in Charlotte from 2007 to 2008.
• Served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of North Carolina from May 2000 to August 2005.
• Worked as an assistant district attorney in Mecklenburg County, N.C.,  from September 1992 to April 1997 and from October 1997 to May 2000. Also was a summer law clerk in 1990.
• Worked at Fialko & Tompkins, PLLC in Charlotte from April 1997 to October 1997.
• Was a summer law clerk at Horack, Talley, Pharr & Lowndes in Charlotte in 1991.
• Worked as a researcher in the City of Charlotte’s Office of Budget and Evaluation from May 1990 to August 1990. Also worked as a budget analyst in the office from August 1987 to August 1989.
• Was an administrator in the recreation division of the City of Charlotte’s Department of Parks and Recreation from August 1986 to August 1987.
• Has tried approximately 37 cases to verdict and served as sole counsel on almost all of the cases.

Click here for her full Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

UPDATE: On her Senate Judiciary financial disclosure, Tompkins reported $1.6 million in assets, mostly from $1.2 million in real estate. She owns her personal residence and undeveloped land. Tompkins reported liabilities of $798,200 due to her mortgages resulting in a net worth of $850,100.

On her Office of Government Ethics financial disclosure, Tompkins reported earning $591,290 in salary and bonuses from Alston & Bird, LLP from January 2008 to October 2009. She also reported earning a $4,800 salary from the Charlotte School of Law. Tompkins only reported one mortgage for between $100,001 and $250,000.

Thomas G. Walker (Courtesy Alston + Bird)

Thomas Walker (Baylor University, Campbell University School of Law) is nominated to replace George E. B. Holding as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

His vitals:

• Born in Atlanta, Ga., in 1964.
• Completed one year of a Master of Divinity degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Has been a partner in the litigation and trial practice group at Alston & Bird, LLP in Charlotte, N.C., since August 2003.
• Was special counsel to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) in Raleigh, N.C., from July 2001 to July 2003.
• Served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Western District of North Carolina from August 1994 to June 2001.
• Worked as a part-time instructor at the American Institute of Paralegal Studies in the spring and fall of 1992 and the spring of 1993.
• Was the assistant district attorney in Charlotte, N.C.,-based Mecklenburg County DA’s office from September 1990 to July 1994.
• Clerked for Van Winkle, Buck, Wall, Starnes & Davis, P.A. in Asheville, N.C., during the summer of 1989.
• Worked as a part time law clerk for Whitney E. Fanning in Waco, Texas, during the summer of 1988.
• Was an office assistant/runner at Tracy, Crumley & Holland in Fort Worth, Texas, from September 1986 to June 1987.
• Worked as a camp counselor at Kanakuk/Kanakomo Kamps, Inc. in Branson, Mo., during the summer of 1986.
• Has tried approximately 40 jury trials to verdict as assistant district attorney. Has tried approximately 15 cases to trial as Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Click here for his full Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

UPDATE: On his Senate Judiciary financial disclosure Walker reported assets of $1.5 million. The majority of his assets are in his four properties including a personal residence valued at $425,000, a second residence valued at $250,000, a vacation residence valued at $310,000 and an undeveloped lot valued at $5,300. However, Walker still owes $658,300 on the properties and $6,100 in accounts and bills due. In total, Walker has liabilities of $664,400, resulting in a net worth of $873,800.

On his Office of Government Ethics disclosure he reported earning from Alston & Bird, LLP for 2008 and most of 2009 was $590,833. This includes his salary and bonuses.

Less than two weeks after their Nov. 30 nominations, the Senate Judiciary Committee has released questionnaires completed by the four would-be U.S. Attorneys.

Here they are:

• Christopher A. Crofts, District of Wyoming. Click here.
• Thomas Walker, Eastern District of North Carolina. Click here.
• James L. Santelle, Eastern District of Wisconsin. Click here.
• Barbara L. McQuade, Eastern District of Michigan. Click here.

The nominees’ questionnaires from the Office of Government Ethics have yet to be posted. We will update with the nominees’ financial information when it becomes available.

President Obama nominated U.S. Attorneys for Wyoming, the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Eastern District of Michigan today. They are:

• Christopher A. Crofts (Wyoming): Gov. David Freudenthal’s legal counsel since 2006 previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 16 years. He would replace Bush holdover Kelly Rankin, who has headed the office since 2008.

• 

  James L. Santelle (Wisconsin Law Journal).

  James L. Santelle (Eastern District of Wisconsin):  The Assistant U.S. Attorney has served in his current role since 1985. While working in the office he simultaneously has had stints as  principal deputy director for the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, civil division chief for the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Michigan and a Justice Department attaché. He would replace Steven Biskupic who was appointed U.S. Attorney by Bush in May 2002. In 2007, Biskupic and his office came under review by congressional investigators looking into the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys. He resigned in January to join the Milwaukee law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich as a litigator.

• 

  Thomas G. Walker (Alston & Bird)

  Thomas G. Walker (Eastern District of North Carolina): The partner at Alston & Bird, LLP has been with the firm since 2003. He previously served as special counsel to North Carolina attorney general Roy A. Cooper, III,  an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina and an assistant district attorney for Mecklenburg County, N.C. Walker would replace Bush holdover George E. B. Holding. Holding is overseeing federal probes of two prominent Democrats: Former Gov. Mike Easley and two-time presidential candidate, ex-Sen. John Edwards.

• 

  Barbara L. McQuade (ICLE).

  Barbara L. McQuade (Eastern District of Michigan): The Assistant U.S. Attorney has served in her role for 11 years. Simultaneously she has served as deputy chief of the national security unit since 2005. McQuade previously was an associate at Butzel Long, P.C. She would replace Stephen J. Murphy who became U.S. Attorney in 2006. In 2008 he became a federal judge in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Obama has now made a total of 34 U.S. Attorney nominations. The full Senate has considered 24 of those nominees and they were all confirmed by unanimous consent.

Ryan Reilly contributed to this report.

Benjamin David (gov)

Benjamin David, the district attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties in North Carolina, on Wednesday announced that he is removing his name from consideration for nomination as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Wilmington television station WECT reports.

David was one of three people that Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) had recommended to President Obama. The other two people are Hampton Dellinger, a partner at the Chapel Hill law firm of  Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson, and Thomas Walker, a partner at the Charlotte law firm of  Alston and Bird.

David cited his desire to remain in the DA’s office, among other personal and professional reasons, for his decision to withdraw from consideration, WECT reported. According to the television station, David said he plans to run for re-election as district attorney next year.

Obama has yet to name a nominee, which might be due in part to the fact that Hagan has said she wants the current Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney, George Holding, to stay in office until he can complete probes of two prominent Democrats: former Gov. Mike Easley and former Sen.  John Edwards.

The Associated Press profiles George Holding, the U.S. Attorney in Raleigh, N.C., who’s managed to hang onto his job because he’s investigating prominent Democrats, making other prominent Democrats scared to touch him.

George Holding (gov)

Read The AP profile here.

The profile is nicely written but left me with a lot of unanswered questions. For example, what are the political pressures on Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.)? As the state’s Democratic senator, Hagan gets to recommend the next U.S. Attorney. But she is obviously one of those Democrats scared to death of this mess, because she’s recommended that President Obama retain Holding, a protege of the late Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), a far-right conservative.

Hagan wants Holding to finish his investigations of Gov. Mike Easley and former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. Read our previous report here.

The story quotes Helms’s former chief of staff,  Jimmy Broughton, saying: ”One thing George is not is political.”

There wasn’t a thing about Helms that was not political. So to me, this statement really translates as: “We are going to tell people George is not political, so he can finish off these highly political investigations of Easley and Edwards.” But maybe I’m wrong. Readers, any thoughts?

Guillford County, N.C., may have to spent as much as $1 million to dry out and preserve 800 boxes of files dating back to the 1950s that got wet during  a recent flood, the Greensboro News & Record reports.

The final say rests with a DOJ lawyer from Main Justice who’s supposed to come down from Washington soon to review the wet papers. Until then, the county has stuck the papers in the freezer. Literally.

They don’t know how else to store them. “If it had caught fire, heaven forbid, it would not have been a question,” Sheriff BJ Barnes told the newspaper.