Las Vegas attorney Tao on Reid’s short list for federal judgeship vacancy

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid threw a man into the mix of potential candidates for a vacant federal judgeship — his former speechwriter Jerry Tao.

Tao earned a spot on Reid’s short list, along with Deputy District Attorney Gloria Navarro and District Judge Elissa Cadish. Tao was aggressively lobbying for the job, both through the Asian-American Action Fund, which urged its supporters to call Reid on his behalf. Tao has also called Democratic attorneys and asked them to lobby for him.

His name sounds familiar because he ran as a Democrat against County Commissioner Chip Maxfield in 2004 in what became a nasty campaign. Tao questioned Maxfield’s ethics and Maxfield questioned whether Tao broke campaign finance laws. No action was taken against Tao by the secretary of state. In the end the Republican incumbent won.

Tao worked for Reid for three years before joining the District Attorney’s office for five years. He now works as an attorney in Las Vegas.

But since only Navarro is undergoing a background check and a check by the American Bar Association, Tao doesn’t look like a likely choice, despite his aggressive lobbying effort.

But Reid’s three prospects — a Hispanic woman, a white woman and an Asian man — show Reid is looking to add diversity to the federal bench in Nevada.