Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale is the first director in the second administration of Governor Lolo Moliga and Lt. Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga to win Fono confirmation.
He was endorsed by both the House and Senate this morning.
The Senate vote was unanimous 16-0 while the House vote was 15-2.
Talauega went before the House Legal Affairs Committee yesterday and was questioned in a two hour hearing before the Senate Rules Committee this morning, details of which will be covered in our evening bulletin.
Talaega first became AG when former AG Afoa Moega Lutu moved to the Senate in January 2014. Before that he was deputy AG.
A graduate of Marist Brothers High School, he received his BA in political science from Northeast Missouri State University, and his juris doctorate with honors from Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa.
He is a member of the Hawaii, Minnesota and American Samoa bars, and has served as a legal assistant to Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, was a law clerk for Judge James Burns, Chief Judge of the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, before joining the law firm of Faegre Baker Daniels, Minnesota.
Also today, the House of Representatives approved Ueligitone Tonumaipe’a as Treasurer of the American Samoa Government and Keniseli Lafaele as Director of Commerce.
The vote for both nominees, who also served in the same posts in the first four years of the Lolo Lemanu government was 14-3.
