List to replace Zakaib down to four

CHARLESTON – The list of candidates to replace a retiring Kanawha County judge has been narrowed to four.

The Judicial Vacancy Advisory Commission has given Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin a list of four names to fill the position vacated by Kanawha Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib. Thirteen attorneys had applied for the vacancy.

Those on the list are Webster Arceneaux III, an attorney with Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins; Gary Pullin, an attorney with Pullin Fowler Flanagan Brown & Poe; Joanna Tabit, an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson; and Lisa Tackett, director of the state Division of Family Court Services.

Zakaib, 81, resigned this summer. He retired at the end of August, but he was appointed as a senior status judge by the state Supreme Court until Tomblin appoints a replacement.

Others who had applied were Dan Greear, Richard Lindtroth, Leah Perry Macia, Erica Mani, Benjamin Mishoe, John Mitchell Jr., Richard Monahan, Charles Francis Woods Saffer and Walton Shepherd III.

Greear, who ran for attorney general in 2008, currently is Chief Counsel for current AG Patrick Morrisey.

Tabit has said she plans to be on the ballot in 2016 for the Kanawha bench.