WISCASSET — Republicans from four Midcoast counties have submitted two names to Gov. Paul LePage to succeed veteran District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau.
Representatives of municipal Republican committees gathered Monday night in Wiscasset and unanimously voted to recommend Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Liberman of West Bath and Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh of Wiscasset.
Kim Pettengill, a spokeswoman for the Republican municipal committees, said she presented the names to the governor’s office after the meeting, which attracted 40 representatives.
Rushlau, a Republican, has been nominated by the governor to serve as a Maine District Court Judge. The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Rushlau’s nomination on April 25.
When a vacancy occurs for a district attorney, the party of which the prosecutor belongs is responsible for recommending his replacement to the governor who then makes the appointment.
Liberman has been the deputy district attorney for Knox, Lincoln, Waldo and Sagadahoc counties since July 2016. From May 2011 until his appointment as deputy district attorney, he served as assistant district attorney – first in Knox and then Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties.
He grew up in Bath, graduated from Cheverus High School in Portland, then attended Syracuse University and later the University of Maine School of Law.
He is married and has an 18-month-old son.
Cavanaugh has been the deputy district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset Counties since January 2015. From 1993 through 2014, he served as assistant district attorney in Hancock and Washington counties. Before that, he served as an assistant attorney general.
He has four children with his first wife, who died in 2006.
He graduated from the University of Maine in 1987 and Vermont Law School in 2001.
Once the Judiciary Committee holds its hearing and votes on Rushlau’s nomination, the full Senate will then vote on Rushlau’s confirmation.
Rushlau was appointed district attorney for the four Midcoast counties in June 1993 by Republican Gov. John McKernan after then District Attorney William Anderson was appointed to a judgeship. Rushlau has since been elected and re-elected six times. His current four-year term was set to expire at the end of 2018.
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