U.S. Attorney, U.S. Marshal Candidates Named: Updated

Sen. Ron Wyden's office has released the names of those whom a selection committee jointly named by Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley will interview for open U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshal positions.

After two currently open federal judgeships, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon and U.S. Marshal positions are among the prime federal political appointments for which locals are eligible.

It's worth noting after some controversy about the lack of diversity in the intitial list of the finalists for the judgeships all being white males (a sixth candidate, Washington County Circuit Court Judge Marco Hernandez was added subsequently) that the U.S. Attorney list includes a woman, Portland lawyer Amanda Marshall, the Assistant Attorney in Charge, Oregon Department of Justice Child Advocacy Section, and a man whose mother is Mexican and who lived in Mexico as a child, Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson.

Marshall and Haroldson, who won election in 2008, are lesser-known candidates for the U.S. Attorney spot. Two other finalists, Josh Marquis, D.A. of Clatsop County and John Foote, D.A. of Clackamas County are often in the public eye; the other two, Acting U.S. Attorney Kent Robinson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton are the leading candidates to emerge from an office run until earlier this year by Karin Immergut, who is now a Multnomah County judge.

The U.S. Marshal's list includes two women, one of whom, Vera Pool a longtime Multnomah County Sheriff's Office veteran, is black.

Here's the full list for both positions:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden's selection committee has chosen six candidates to interview for the position of U.S. Attorney and six candidates to interview for the position of U.S. Marshal. The interviews will take place October 24 - 25, 2009.


The candidates interviewing for U.S. Attorney are:


John Foote

John Haroldson

Dwight Holton

Joshua Marquis

Amanda Marshall

Kent Robinson


The candidates interviewing for U.S. Marshal are:


Russel Burger

James Ferraris

Gerald Greg

Eric Mellgren

Carla Piluso

Vera Pool


The selection committee, appointed by both Wyden and U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, will recommend three finalists for each position and Senator Wyden will forward those names to the President.