District Attorney Danny Craig has been tapped to be the newest Superior Court judge in the Augusta Judicial Circuit.

Gov. Sonny Perdue selected Mr. Craig on Friday.

"I was so excited myself I forgot to ask," Mr. Craig said Friday about when he starts his new job.

Mr. Craig, 52, was selected from a short list compiled by the state's judicial nominating commission. The other nominees were Columbia County Magistrate Judge Wade Padgett, 42; and Augusta attorney E. Freddie Sanders, 58, of the Capers, Dunbar, Sanders & Bruckner law firm.

The seat has been open since Nov. 1, when Neal W. Dickert resigned.

Mr. Craig will complete Judge Dickert's term, which runs through the end of the year. The office will be on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election.

He joins seven sitting Superior Court judges who preside over domestic, civil and criminal cases in Richmond, Columbia and Burke counties.

Because the district attorney is a state officeholder, the governor will need to appoint someone to Mr. Craig's former job.

Mr. Craig, who earned his undergraduate degree at Augusta College and his law degree from Mercer University School of Law, has practiced law since 1979. He was elected district attorney in 1993.

He is a former president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Counsel of Georgia, and he has taught classes at the national center for prosecutors. In 2000, he was named District Attorney of the Year, and in 2004, was awarded the National Trial Advocacy Award.

Mr. Craig and his wife, Crystal, have three daughters and two grandsons.