U.S. Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar have each submitted lists of nominees they hope President Bush will choose to fill three openings on the U.S. District Court for Colorado.
Salazar announced Thursday that he agreed with two of the seven nominations Allard had made in January, and he added one of his own. Bush is now free to choose the judges he wants, but they must be confirmed by the Democrat-led Senate.
That would signal an advantage for CU attorney Christine Arguello and Gregory Goldberg, a partner at Holland and Hart law firm, whose names appeared on both senators’ lists.
From there, it gets murky. Salazar added the name of Boulder Judge Lael Montgomery, while Allard’s list contained five other names not on Salazar’s list.
Arguello is senior associate counsel for the University of Colorado and was a chief deputy attorney general and law professor. Before his work with Holland and Hart, Goldberg was a federal prosecutor.
“I selected these three because they are highly qualified and they would bring to the U.S. District Court a diversity of experiences,” Salazar said.
He also credited the bipartisan judicial nomination commission he convened to help him sort through the applicants. Salazar created the commission for the purpose of formalizing the nomination process and opening it up to candidates who might not be politically connected.
Allard’s other nominees are Philip Brimmer, Special Prosecutions Section chief, U.S. attorney’s office; U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty; 19th District state Judge James Hartmann; former interim U.S. Attorney William Leone; and 1st District state Judge Mary Jo Menendez.
