The Arizona Democratic congressional delegation urged President Obama to nominate Phoenix lawyer Dennis Burke to be the state’s next U.S. Attorney, The Arizona Republic reported today.
Burke, former chief of staff to then-Gov. Janet Napolitano, would succeed U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa who replaced Paul Charlton after the 2006 U.S. Attorney purge. The Republic said the decision to recommend Burke was a matter of “when, not if.”
“I’m glad President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder see what a fine man he is,” former Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) told The Republic. “I’m just surprised it didn’t come sooner.”
Burke told The Republic that he was contacted by the Justice Department about Burke, a former counsel to DeConcini on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The former senator said Burke helped him win support for a ban on automatic weapons almost 20 years ago, according to the newspaper.
Conservative Arizona blog Sonoran Alliance called the recommendation “cronyism.” Burke was chief of staff for more than 10 years before he left last year to campaign for Obama, according to The Republic.
“Burke is known for little other than carrying Napolitano’s water at the Attorney General’s Office, then at the Governor’s Office,” the bloggers wrote.
Prior to his posts in the Arizona governor’s office and on the Judiciary Committee, Burke served as a clerk in the Arizona Supreme Court, a special assistant in the DOJ Office of Legislative Affairs and the Arizona chief deputy attorney general, according to The Republic.
“He knows the judicial system inside and out,” DeConcini told the newspaper.
