Greear may run for Berger court seat
by admin on 28/10/09 at 6:03 am
Charleston Daily Mail
By Ry Rivard
October 28, 2009
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Dan Greear, the Republican lawyer who nearly unseated Attorney General Darrell McGraw, is eyeing the seat soon to be vacated by Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Irene Berger.
The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Berger on Tuesday to a spot on the U.S. Southern District Court of West Virginia, making her the state’s first black federal judge. Soon after Berger takes her lifetime seat on the federal bench, Gov. Joe Manchin will pick someone to replace her.
Depending on who the replacement is, Greear says he might run for the seat in the next election.
“It’s something my eye is definitely on,” Greear said Tuesday evening.
Manchin is expected to pick a Democrat he thinks can win an election for the seat in either 2010 or 2012, depending on when he picks the replacement.
The seven candidates being considered are Phyllis Carter, an administrative law judge with the state Human Rights Commission; Del. Carrie Webster, D-Kanawha, the chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee; John Hackney Jr., a West Virginia State Court of Claims judge; lawyer Kathy Brown; lawyer David Cecil; lawyer Katherine Louise Dooley; and lawyer Joanna Tabit.
