Brown and Kantor Stir Misgivings : Appointments: Clinton’s Commerce Department and trade representative choices are viewed in the U.S. high-tech community as inconsistent with campaign promises.

Disappointed by two of President-elect Bill Clinton’s key appointments, leaders of the high-technology community are privately expressing concern that the incoming Administration may be backing down from its commitment to increasing government support for American technology.

The anxiety is based largely on Clinton’s choice of Democratic Party Chairman Ron Brown to be commerce secretary and lawyer-lobbyist Mickey Kantor as U.S. trade representative. Executives at some high-tech concerns view both appointees as relative strangers to their industry.

One high-tech lobbyist described the appointments as “a very surprising choice and a disappointment.” Others, all of whom declined to be identified by name for fear they might offend Clinton, expressed similar misgivings.

The nomination of Brown is especially disconcerting to high-tech industries because, in his capacity as a Washington lobbyist, he has represented many of their Japanese competitors. One business source, bitter about what he sees as the incoming commerce secretary’s lack of background in U.S. manufacturing, said: “The only industry that Ron Brown comes out of is the influence-peddling industry.”

The industrialists’ reaction is perhaps a harbinger of troubles for Clinton, whose generous campaign promises created such high expectations among various interest groups that many are likely to be disappointed by the results.

Those who represent the nation’s high-tech companies in Washington said the appointments are not consistent with a commitment Clinton made last September, when he pledged to “create a world-class business environment for private sector and innovation.”

High-tech industry officials said they expected the President-elect to choose people familiar with American technology for the jobs that traditionally promote U.S. industry on world markets.

Brown is sure to be questioned about his lack of industry experience and his ties to Japanese interests when his nomination comes up for review Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee, congressional aides said. He will also be asked how his appointment squares with Clinton’s commitment to promote U.S. technology abroad.

Ken Kay, executive director of the Computer Systems Policy Project, which represents the chief executive officers of 13 prominent companies, said it will be up to Brown to demonstrate that “he’s not going to continue the legacy of the Commerce Department as a bureaucratic backwater.”

The Senate Finance Committee has not yet scheduled hearings for Kantor, who is a partner in the politically well-connected law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Phillips & Kantor, led by former Democratic Chairman Charles T. Manatt.

Neither Brown nor Kantor could be reached for comment on the concerns raised by high-tech industry officials.

Brown, apparently seeking to mend fences with the industry, spent three days last week visiting executives in the Silicon Valley to discuss with them his plans for the Commerce Department. Democratic National Committee spokesman Jim Desler would not identify those with whom Brown conferred.

Clinton transition officials have also let it be known they may be considering some high-tech industry officials, such as David Barram of Apple Computer in Cupertino and Roger W. Johnson of Western Digital in Irvine, for lesser Commerce Department positions that deal directly with technology. Michael R. Wessel, aide to House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), another popular choice with the high-tech industry, is being considered as Kantor’s deputy.

The appointments of Brown and Kantor have been widely interpreted as signs that Clinton may be satisfied with the relatively low profiles the Commerce Department and the U.S. trade representative’s office have had in past administrations. High-tech industry officials have been dissatisfied with what they see as unwillingness on the part of these agencies to promote American technology actively on the world market.

Pat Choate, author of “Agents of Influence,” a book that details lobbying activities for foreign companies performed by American political leaders such as Brown, said that the selection of the Democratic Party chairman to be commerce secretary is seen as “a continuation of the tradition of irrelevance at the Commerce Department.”

Many times in the past, Presidents have used Commerce Department appointments to reward those who played major roles in their elections. President Bush named his chief fund raiser, Robert A. Mossbacher; President Richard M. Nixon chose the man responsible for his campaign funds, Maurice Stans.

Likewise, the U.S. trade representative has often been closely identified with party politics. Previous appointees have included Robert S. Strauss, former Democratic chairman, and Bill Brock, former chairman of the Republican Party. While Kantor never served as party chairman, he most recently was chairman of the Clinton presidential campaign.

Kay said that high-tech industry officials do not doubt that Brown is capable of being a good commerce secretary, but they question whether his appointment signals a decision on Clinton’s part to continue to de-emphasize the Commerce Department.

“If Brown and Clinton conclude that technology, competitiveness and information infrastructure are important roles for the Commerce Department, I don’t think anybody is going to get that job done better than Ron,” he said. “But we don’t know yet whether they are going to create that mission for him.”

Some high-tech industry officials acknowledged that their disappointment with Brown and Kantor was intensified because of earlier expectations that Clinton would appoint John Young, former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, as commerce secretary, or Alan W. Wolff, a lawyer who represents the semiconductor industry, as trade representative.

Sources said Young was disqualified by Clinton, in part because he wanted a commitment from the President-elect that all high-tech related agencies in the federal government would be brought under the umbrella of the Commerce Department through a massive reorganization. Laura Tyson, whom Clinton has chosen to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers, recently told a group of high-tech lobbyists that Clinton is not inclined to spend time reorganizing the bureaucracy.

One of Young’s many disappointed admirers said he “would have made the Commerce Department the primary department in the U.S. government for technology policy.”

Likewise, Kantor’s appointment came as a blow to those who believe that the next trade representative ought to be keenly aware of the substantive issues in the current round of trade negotiations. While Kantor is known to be a superb negotiator, he has no background in trade issues.

Clinton’s campaign proposal for a new government technology policy did not spell out the role he envisioned for the Commerce Department or the trade representative. Instead, it said that Vice President-elect Al Gore would be assigned “the responsibility and authority to coordinate the Administration’s vision for technology and lead all government agencies, including research groups, in aligning with that vision.”

At Brown’s confirmation hearings next week, according to congressional sources, the nominee will be asked to explain what roles he and the Commerce Department will play in that new initiative.

Sources said Brown, a member of the high-powered lobbying firm of Patton, Boggs & Blow, will also be asked many “conflict-of-interest questions” regarding his previous roles as a fund raiser for the Democratic Party and as a lobbyist for a variety of American and foreign companies.

“That mix of money and access--it always makes me somewhat uneasy,” said a committee aide who requested anonymity.

Under Clinton’s new ethics guidelines, his top political appointees are prohibited from ever representing a foreign government after they serve the U.S. government. But the guidelines apparently would not prohibit Brown from resuming his lobbying for foreign companies.

Although senators will raise questions about their backgrounds, both Brown and Kantor are expected to be confirmed without difficulty. But they will almost certainly endure intense scrutiny from their critics once they take their new jobs.