Obama Nominee for Texas U.S. Attorney Post withdraws

By: Tom Benning/The Dallas Morning News

President Barack Obama’s first choice for a Texas federal prosecutor withdrew from consideration Thursday after lengthy delays in the appointment process.

John B. Stevens Jr., a state judge in Beaumont, was the president’s pick to oversee prosecutions in Texas’ Eastern District, which stretches from Plano and Tyler to the Gulf Coast. Stevens said the protracted confirmation process and his impending November re-election forced him to re-evaluate.

“When it’s gotten this far along and there is no end in sight and no prediction about when it will be completed, I have to think about my family, me and my political future,” said Stevens, who was nominated in late February.

The selection process for federal judges and U.S. marshals has pitted Texas’ 12 House Democrats against its two Republican senators. Stevens was one of the few candidates both sides agreed upon, and he was Obama’s only nominee thus far for one of the state’s four U.S. attorney slots.

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