The list of candidates to become Douglas County’s next district court judge has been trimmed from eight to three.

After a day of interviews at the Judicial & Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th St., the Seventh Judicial District Nominating Committee announced Friday afternoon it would send three people’s names to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for consideration.

They are Jim George, a Lawrence defense attorney who also works as small-claims court judge; Peggy C. Kittel, who already handles a limited caseload in district court as judge pro tem; and Stephen Six, a Lawrence resident who works for the Kansas City, Mo., firm of Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman and is son of former Kansas Supreme Court Justice Fred Six.

Sebelius will be officially notified of the selections Monday in a letter and will have 30 days to make a selection.

“I thought that we got a good field of strong candidates. These three just happened to be the best of that field,” said Kansas Supreme Court Justice Lawton Nuss, who presided over Friday’s interviews as nonvoting chairman of the committee.

The Legislature agreed earlier this year to set aside money for the new seat to help accommodate a growing caseload. But Supreme Court Justice Robert Gernon, a Lawrence resident, said he thought the district already could justify another judge in addition to the one it will add.

Candidates were asked for their views on topics including victims’ issues, their personal interests, their strengths and weaknesses, and ethical dilemmas they’d faced.

Several members of the seven-member committee said the selection process wasn’t affected by a recent controversy involving Judge Paula B. Martin, whom voters kept on the bench last month despite criticism of her sentencing record.

“I don’t think it would have been fair to allow it to have an impact on it,” committee member Milton Scott said.

The other applicants were John C. Chappell, Lawrence, Law Office of John C. Chappell; Mary Dee Curtis, Lawrence, appellate defender’s office; Timothy G. Riling, Lawrence, Law Office of Timothy G. Riling; M.J. Willoughby, Lawrence, general counsel for the Office of Judicial Administration; and Kenneth Warner, Eudora, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.