Travis McDonough is officially moving around the corner.
Chief of staff for Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke for the last two years at City Hall, the former Miller & Martin attorney soon will take up residence as a judge for the federal court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in the Joel W. Solomon Federal Building.
An 89-0 vote in the United States Senate on Monday sealed the deal about 13 months after he was nominated to succeed Judge Curtis Collier, who has taken senior status.
He will join Harry S. "Sandy" Mattice as judges in the federal court.
McDonough, a 1997 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, had been an attorney for Miller & Martin from 2005 to 2013 before moving to City Hall. Berke had named him to head his transition team before tapping him as his chief of staff.
Although the process for his nomination for the bench began with U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, both Tennessee Republican U.S. senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, gave him glowing recommendations both for his vote by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and by the full Senate.
"He's a well-qualified man," Alexander told his Senate colleagues Monday. "We're fortunate that he's willing to serve, and we're fortunate the president has nominated him."
"I have known Travis McDonough personally for years," Corker said before the Senate vote, "and am confident he will serve the people of Tennessee honorably in this new role."
We believe both senators are correct and look forward to the new jurist's honorable service.