U.S. District Court Judge Brian Sandoval is resigning his lifetime appointment on the federal distict court in Reno. Sandoval, who was the state's Republican Attorney General when he was appointed to the federal bench in 2005, had previously been a member of the state assembly from 1994-98, and chaired the state gaming commission from 1998-2001. While early speculation is that he'll challenge Nevada's thoroughly unpopular Governor Jim Gibbons in the GOP primary, it seems to me more likely that he's looking toward the U.S. Senate.
Sandoval is a politician. Although he has been an able district court judge, he never struck me as cut out for the cloistered realm of the judiciary. He is ambitious, though, and I always assumed he had his eye on a seat on the Ninth Circuit court of appeals.
There are only two reasons I can think of why he would resign: to challenge Harry Reid, or to run for governor. Early news reports have Sandoval looking to the governor's mansion, but I'm skeptical. Given the state of the state of Nevada these days, I can't imagine someone would give up a lifetime federal appointment to run for governor.
He's young, attractive, Hispanic, and has already won statewide office. This could be very bad news for Senator Reid. Reid is nearly as unpopular as Gibbons in Nevada, and the view out here has been that if the Republicans could come up with any legitimate candidate to challenge Reid, he would be in trouble. Until now, however, they haven't had any lucky identifying a challenger (Rep. Dean Heller recently announced that he would not challenge Reid -- I expect Heller will bide his time until Ensign's seat comes around, in the hopes it will be an open seat by then.)
Sandoval could be the candidate the Republicans have been hoping for. Much as I would like to get rid of Reid as Senate Majority leader, I'm worried that we could lose the seat all together. Sandoval's resignation is effective September 15, so it will be at least a few more weeks until we know what his plans are.
Developing... :-)