Local attorney Eric Seitz says Gov. Neil Abercrombie‘s administration considered him a serious candidate for Hawaii Attorney General and asked him to apply.

“I was asked by people close to (Abercrombie) if I was interested,” Seitz told Civil Beat. “I thought about it, I was very flattered and I said no that I wasn’t interested.”

Seitz said he was told that if he was interested and willing to accept the position, he would be seriously considered for the role.

It’s an interesting insight into how the Abercrombie transition team has been doing its behind-closed-doors work to fill the Cabinet.

The attorney general is arguably Abercrombie’s most important Cabinet appointment. The AG is the governor’s top legal advisor and is typically one of the more visible members of an administration.

Seitz is one of the most visible, and opinionated lawyers in the state, a far cry from the dry sobriety of Mark Bennett or old-boy connections of Earl Anzai, Gov. Ben Cayetano’s second attorney general.

Never shy of controversy, Seitz put himself in the spotlight in July when he wrote a letter to the Hawaii Bar Association calling Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee Katherine Leonard “ill equipped and unqualified” for the post.

A civil rights defense attorney, Seitz represented Ehren Watada, a Hawaii-born former U.S. Army lieutenant who famously faced court martial in 2007 for refusing to deploy to Iraq on moral grounds.

Earlier this year, he represented Mike Sou, co-owner of Aloun Farms, who faces human trafficking charges for allegedly keeping 44 Thai immigrants as indentured laborers.

If there’s a compelling, headline-grabbing case involving injustice, Seitz is likely to take it on — pro bono.

Had Abercrombie picked him, Seitz may have faced a roller-coaster of a confirmation process — in front of Clayton Hee’s Senate judiciary, no less. Had he been confirmed, reporters would have delighted in near unlimited access.

But it’s hard to see how that would serve Abercrombie.

Seitz says he didn’t apply to be Abercrombie’s attorney general because of commitments to his practice.

“I have a very active practice, I have a lot of clients and I don’t really see how they would be taken care of if I were to just abruptly leave,” Seitz said. “I was struggling to figure out how I could extricate myself from that and still see to it that those people are properly represented.”

Seitz also said that he believes he can be of more use to Abercrombie as an external advisor.

“I’m in a very good position on the outside to be able to influence things as an independent critic and I’ve known the governor and the lieutenant governor for many years. I’m able to talk to them,” he said. “My sense is that I’m much more useful on the outside than I am on the inside.”

Seitz said he recommended to the governor other possible candidates for the position, but he declined to share names.

To date, Abercrombie has named 11 of his 16 Cabinet heads. The five remaining positions include the attorney general, transportation, health, human services and defense heads.

—Chad Blair contributed to this story.