BANGOR – More than seven months after the five-member Maine Gambling Control Board lost one of its members, its ranks are close to being replenished.

Gov. John Baldacci has nominated Cushing Pagon Samp to the board seat vacated last August by Jean M. Deighan of Bangor.

A Senate confirmation hearing has been scheduled for April 25, Samp said in a telephone interview this week.

Samp is a longtime Hampden resident who last year moved to Saco.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I’m very excited and flattered to be serving,” said Samp, who holds an English degree from Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a law degree from the University of Maine School of Law in Portland.

Her work experience includes a clerkship with Maine supreme court Justice Charles Pomeroy, work as an attorney-examiner for the Maine Public Utilities Commission and as an editor of a Pine Tree Legal Assistance newsletter for American Indians.

Samp’s nomination could not have come soon enough for the board, which was forced to cancel its last two scheduled meetings for lack of a quorum. One of the four members has been away on vacation for the last few weeks and another has been ill, leaving only two members on hand.

That has made scheduling meetings tricky in recent weeks, executive director Robert Welch said Wednesday by phone.

Deighan of Bangor was one of Baldacci’s original nominees to the gambling board. She announced her intention to step down last July, a month before her one-year appointment expired. It was Deighan who recruited Samp for the post.

“Jean and I were in law school together, and we’ve been friends ever since,” Samp said, adding that Deighan told her she would bring some valuable skills to the board.

Judson Esty Kendall, one of Samp’s former Pine Tree Legal colleagues, applauded the nomination.

“I think she’s a good choice,” he said. “Cushing is very sharp. She has a good attention to detail and is an excellent attorney.”

Samp also is known for her service on the Bangor Historical Society, Penobscot Theatre Company and Warren Center boards and the Isaac Farrar Mansion Committee, and as a volunteer for Pine Tree Legal and the Junior League of Bangor.