In 2006, Michael Nifong had been a year in his job as Durham County District Attorney, appointed by Democratic Gov. Mike Easley of North Carolina with the promise he would not run for that position in the next election. However, after Nifong and his wife saw he could earn an extra $15,000 a year on his pension if he served four more years as a D.A., he decided to run for office in the upcoming Democratic primary in April 2006. In March 2006, however, his electoral chances were poor. He trailed another candidate—a former prosecutor whom he had fired the year before—and his fund-raising efforts