ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Both parties expect the governor to try to preserve the seven-member court's conservative majority.
Gov. George Allen is evaluating candidates for a seat on the Virginia Supreme Court from a list of 25 potential nominees, some of whose names weren't raised by deadlocked lawmakers this winter.
Among the new candidates are Cynthia Kinser, a federal magistrate in Abingdon, and former state and federal prosecutor Henry Hudson of Arlington. Both have ties to the governor.
Allen spokeswoman Julie Overy on Friday declined to comment on details, saying the process is confidential. Allen hopes to decide by early May.
Allen earned the right to make the appointment, and leave his imprint on the court, when the General Assembly voted along party lines and failed to agree on a successor to retiring justice Roscoe Stephenson Jr.
The choice will have to be approved by the assembly after the governor leaves office in January. Lawyers and legislators in both parties expect Allen to try to preserve the seven-member court's conservative majority.
``He will appoint someone who reflects his views of the world, the rising of sun and setting thereof, judicial activism and his conservative philosophy of government,'' said Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax County and chairman of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.
Court observers also believe Allen would prefer an identifiable Republican for a court dominated by justices with Democratic ties, and that he might try for political points by tapping a woman or member of a minority group.
That could help Kinser; she and Allen served as clerks to federal judge Glen Williams nearly 20 years ago. Williams administered the oath of office to Allen at his swearing-in as governor in 1994.
Hudson served on President Reagan's anti-pornography commission and Allen's criminal sentencing study panel. He was once considered for a federal judgeship, and served as U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia.
Allen's list of candidates also includes the 12 recommended to the General Assembly by the lawyers' organizations, as well as those considered by legislators in the countdown to adjournment in February.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Betsy Davis Beamer and Mark Christie, Allen's chief counsel, are checking the prospects, their personal and professional backgrounds and the recommendations.
Beamer said she and Christie would begin interviewing candidates in about 10 days.
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