By Alabama Public Radio
Montgomery, AL – Governor Riley has selected former Attorney General Charlie Graddick to fill the six months remaining in the term of Mobile County Circuit Judge William McDermott. McDermott died in May. Graddick was already the Republican nominee for the judgeship. He faces Democrat Edward Blount Junior in the general election in November. Graddick was elected Mobile County district attorney in 1974 and state attorney general in 1978 and 1982 as a Democrat. In 1986, he narrowly led the Democratic runoff for governor. But the Democratic Party ruled that he received illegal Republican crossover votes, so the nomination was given to Bill Baxley. The selection split the Democratic Party and led to Guy Hunt becoming Alabama's first Republican governor since Reconstruction.