Six hope to make case to be attorney

Six candidates have applied to become the next Hillsborough County attorney, and the county delegation will meet Tuesday to pick a winner.

The delegation consists of the 123 elected members of the House of Representatives from Hillsborough County, and they are scheduled to meet at the Hillsborough County Complex at 329 Mast Road, Goffstown, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to delegation clerk Gilman Shattuck.

Six people have applied for the post vacated by former County Attorney Marguerite Wageling, who has been appointed to become a superior court judge. Ironically, Wageling herself first won the job through the same process, when she was selected to replace former County Attorney John Coughlin in 2004.

“This does not happen very often,” said Shattuck, a representative from Hillsborough and clerk of the county delegation.

The county advertised for applicants last month, and although the application deadline has passed, the election process also includes a write-in option, Shattuck said. Candidates must be members of the New Hampshire Bar, and residents of Hillsborough County.

The six official candidates all have filled out applications, and submitted resumes, and some may have done a little campaigning on their own, Shattuck said.

“I’m sure there has been some electioneering,” Shattuck said, though he said he doesn’t believe any clear front-runner has emerged as yet.

The six candidates each will have five minutes to address the delegation Tuesday, followed by a question and deliberation session and then a vote. The meeting is open to the public, and although the public can’t vote, people are free to call representatives and express their opinions, Shattuck noted.

The winning candidate must garner at least 51 percent of the vote from the delegation, so delegates will vote repeatedly if necessary, until someone gets a majority, Shattuck said.

“This procedure is kind of like electing the pope, I guess,” Shattuck joked, adding later, “The procedure is a little bit archaic.”

The winner will be appointed to finish the current term, which runs through 2011, Shattuck said.

The county attorney supervises a staff of 20 full-time attorneys, who prosecute all felony cases in the county except homicides, which are handled by the state attorney general’s office. The job pays $83,000 a year.

In alphabetical order, the official candidates are:

• Eric Forcier of Manchester, a 2009 graduate of the New England School of Law.

• Karen Gorham of Bedford, has been an assistant county attorney since 2006. She is a 1990 graduate of the San Diego School of Law, and previously worked for the state attorney general’s office and as a prosecutor in California.

• Dennis Hogan of Nashua, a 2002 Franklin Pierce Law School graduate and lawyer in private practice, also has served on Nashua’s board of education.

• Andrew Ouellette of Amherst, worked as an assistant county attorney in Strafford and Rockingham counties before joining the Hillsborough County Attorney staff in 1993, and he’s been there ever since. He is a 1985 Franklin Pierce Law School graduate.

• Henry Spaloss of Nashua graduated from Fordham Law School in 1961. In addition to his political background in the New Hampshire House and as an alderman, Spaloss was assistant attorney general from 1967-73, and served as the Hillsborough County Attorney in 1981 and 1982.

• Bob Walsh III of Manchester is now in private practice but formerly served as an assistant county attorney, and has two law degrees, one from Suffolk University Law School (1981) and the other from Boston University (1983).

Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.