Gov. to Appoint Former Rep. Rogan to Judgeship

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Monday that he intended to appoint former Rep. James E. Rogan, the onetime manager of President Clinton’s impeachment and a conservative hero, as a Superior Court judge in Orange County.

The affable, articulate Rogan is one of the more colorful characters in California politics. A former vacuum cleaner salesman and porn theater bouncer, Rogan was raised by a single mother on welfare and food stamps.

He became a Municipal Court judge and then a Republican state assemblyman and congressman representing Glendale and Pasadena.

In an interview Monday, Rogan, 48, said that returning to the bench was more important to him than being elected to Congress in 1996.

“I am going to stay for the rest of my life on the bench,” he said. “They are going to have to carry me out.”

Since 2004, he has worked at an Orange County law firm, Preston Gates Ellis, handling intellectual-property cases.

He also has been promoting his new autobiography, “Rough Edges: My Unlikely Road From Welfare to Washington.”

Rogan gained national attention during Clinton’s impeachment in 1998 and 1999, when he served as one of the most visible prosecutors of the embattled president. After getting unseated from Congress in a bitter election in 2000, Rogan was appointed by President Bush as an undersecretary of the Department of Commerce and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Soon after the governor’s news release announcing Rogan’s appointment went out Monday, conservative commentator and blogger Jon Fleischman issued an e-mail alert to his readers. He called Rogan a “superstar on the Republican side of the aisle.”

In describing his judicial philosophy, Rogan echoed a frequent complaint from conservatives who say that liberal judges make law from the bench and ignore the intent of lawmakers.

“I am a great believer that the role of the judge is to follow the law the way it was written,” Rogan said, “and not become a super-legislator and interpret the law the way they think it would be written. If they want to make laws, they should run for office.”

Schwarzenegger’s office made the rare move of announcing Rogan’s intended appointment although the position won’t be open for two months. Rogan is replacing retiring Judge Susanne Shaw, who leaves Sept. 30.

Rogan’s appointment comes amid criticism from conservatives who objected last week to Schwarzenegger saying that there was too much prejudice and hatred in the debate over immigration. And some Republicans have said with disdain that nearly 45% of Schwarzenegger’s appointments to the bench have been Democrats or independents.

Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Sabrina Demayo Lockhart said the early unveiling of Rogan’s appointment came because “we found the ideal candidate and we wanted to announce it.”

Rogan said he has never met Schwarzenegger but has seen him at events.