Gov. Sam Brownback says that his friend and former aide is not his obvious choice to fill a vacancy on the Kansas Supreme Court.

Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Caleb Stegall was Brownback’s chief counsel until the governor appointed him to the state’s second-highest court in January of this year.

Stegall is now among three finalists for the Supreme Court forwarded to Brownback earlier this month by a special nominating committee. The other candidates are Court of Appeals Judge Karen Arnold-Burger and Merlin G. Wheeler, chief judge of the 5th Judicial Circuit.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Brownback said interviews with the three candidates will begin soon.

One of them will fill the vacancy created when Justice Nancy Moritz left to join the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.