Former Reno assemblyman is on track to be U.S. attorney for Nevada

I told you three months ago Brower was one of three candidates suggested to the department by U.S. Sen. John Ensign. Now he is THE chosen candidate.

Brower is no stranger to the Justice Department; he worked there for a year before he joined the Government Printing Office in December 2004 at the urging of another Nevada Bush appointee, U.S. Public Printer Bruce James.

FBI agents are making required background checks in Las Vegas, Reno, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., which is the last step before forwarding Brower’s name to the White House for a formal nomination. Since Republican Ensign has already said he ran his three choices by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, it’s highly unlikely the Democrat will throw any obstacles in Brower’s way.

Brower and two other candidates believed to be from inside the U.S. attorney’s office made the short list as replacements for former U.S. Attorney Dan Bogden, one of the eight U.S. attorneys fired on Pearl Harbor Day. The firings contributed to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ recent resignation because he could never persuade senators that he had told the truth about the reasons behind the unusual mass mid-term firings.

Brower, 43, has no experience as a prosecutor, but that’s never been one of the job’s requirements. Even though it’s not yet officially announced, Republicans and Democrats alike told me Brower is a superb choice, levelheaded and hard working with a wide-ranging background as a litigator and administrator.

It’s uncertain when President Bush will act or how long the Senate confirmation will take. In the meantime, Bogden’s capable first assistant, Steven Myhre, is acting U.S. attorney in the busy Las Vegas office, which has successfully prosecuted four former Clark County commissioners, one topless club owner and one developer as part of a political corruption probe.

Brower worked for the U.S. Government Printing Office first as inspector general, then as general counsel with a team of eight attorneys. Prior to that job, he was legislative counsel in the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys in the Justice Department, where he worked with the 93 U.S. attorneys to implement the Patriot Act.

Born in Wisconsin, he moved with his family to Las Vegas, where he graduated from Bonanza High School in 1982. He got his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986.

He spent two years on active duty as a lieutenant with the U.S. Navy. In a profile by the National Law Journal last April, Brower said, “Everything I know about management, I learned during my time in the Navy.”

After his military service, he returned to school, earning his law degree at George Washington University Law School in 1992. Moving to San Francisco, he was a litigator with a law firm for two years before returning to Nevada to work at Laxalt & Nomura. Later, he joined another politically connected law firm, Jones Vargas.

His political career began when he was elected to the Assembly in 1998 and re-elected in 2000. He received high marks as a legislator during both sessions and was viewed as a potential GOP leader. But a more conservative candidate, Sharron Angle, blocked his bid for a third term in the 2002 Republican primary.

After that defeat, although married with two children, he left his lucrative private practice job with Jones Vargas to join the Justice Department in 2003.

When he practiced law in Nevada, he defended insurance companies, so it shouldn’t take him long to get up to speed on the complex ongoing investigation into allegations involving doctors and lawyers supposedly conspiring to run up the costs of cases and protect doctors from medical malpractice claims.

Like other U.S. attorneys before him, among Brower’s toughest decisions will be which cases to accept and which to reject. Those decisions show the true mettle of any U.S. attorney, and it’s why, although they’re political appointees, after they get the job, they’re supposed to be left alone to make prosecutorial decisions without considering party politics.

Dan Bogden did that.

Let’s hope Brower has the same kind of backbone.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0275.