Larry D Struve - Building Trust in Government: Governor Richard H. Bryans Pursuit of the Common Good

Building Trust in Government

Governor Richard H. Bryans
Pursuit of the Common Good

Larry D. Struve

Reno, NV

Publisher Alrica Goldstein

Editor Paul Szydelko

Cover Design Vicky Shea | Ponderosa Pine Design

Indexer Christine Hoskin | Schoolhouse Indexing

Cover image courtesy iStock.com/LoudRedCreative, all other images courtesy Larry D. Struve or Richard H. Bryan

Keystone Canyon Press

2341 Crestone Drive

Reno, NV 89523

www.keystonecanyon.com

Copyright 2021 by Larry D. Struve

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021932918

ISBN 978-1-953055-08-8

EPUB ISBN 978-1-953055-09-5

Manufactured in the United States of America

To the memory of my wife, Colleen Quinn Struve, 19462019

This book is dedicated to my wife, Colleen Quinn Struve. She offered valuable advice and assistance in getting it finished. Her favorite phrase was: No good ever done is lost. Hopefully, the good that was done during the governorship of Richard H. Bryan will not be lost, in part because of the memories captured in this book and the creative mind of Colleen, who imagined how best to tell the story.

Foreword

Brian Sandoval

University of Nevada, Reno President
and former two-term Nevada Governor

For many of us, perhaps the date that still lives most vividly in our memories regarding Richard Bryans long and illustrious political career in Nevada came on February 18, 1999, when he announced he would not seek reelection to the US Senate in the 2000 election.

Although almost two years remained in Bryans second term in the Senate, many of us still poignantly remember the comments from both sides of the political aisle and the political shockwaves that reverberated.

We live in a highly charged partisan age today and even in 1999, clear sides already existed. Yet, both Democrats and Republicans universally praised Bryan.

US Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, Bryans good friend and political ally for more than three decades, said he was so saddened by the news that the day felt funereal to him.

For the state of Nevada, its a devastating loss, Reid, a passionate Democrat, said.

Frank Fahrenkopf, former Republican National Committee chairman, whose efforts had helped elect two Republican presidents in the 1980s, had known Dick Bryan even longer than Reid, having first met Bryan when they were classmates at the University of Nevada in 1957.

His reaction to Bryans announcement was one of the few times in their long history as political opponents that Fahrenkopfswords mirrored Reids.

His loss, Fahrenkopf said, will really be felt.

Few, if any, political retirements in our states history have evoked the genuine admiration, respect, and gratitude expressed following Bryans announcement.

This was a public servant who always fiercely protected the interests of all Nevadans, whose mastery and recall of policy was legendary, and who was uncommonly gifted in making genuine and lasting connections with all of the people he encountered.

Dick Bryan has always been famous for his ability to never forget a name, a face, or a family tree that has roots in Nevada. If he hasnt met you in person, there is a good chance he once went to school with your father or mother, or knows a person in rural Nevada whose family has connection to yours, or has knowledge of your grandmother or grandfather, or once actually did meet you or a friend of yours at a community event. This sounds like an exaggeration. It really isnt. Although he said that serving in the US Senate was frosting on the cake, his favorite job far and above was serving as Nevadas governorwhere there are daily, if not hourly, opportunities to publicly interact with Nevadas citizens. The love of his life, his wife of 54 years, Bonnie, shared his love of the people of Nevada. Engaging, loving, kind. and charmingly authentic, Bonnie was Dicks most important asset not only during his political campaigns, but away from them as well.

Bryan was not only a history-making public defender, state assemblyman, state senator, state attorney general, governor and US senator, he, perhaps more than any other Nevada elected official, was a keen student of the Silver States history. He used this extensive knowledge to leverage our history less as sepia-toned textbook and more as practical guidebook for many of his important initiatives. This was an important reason why Bryan, who wasnt afraid to fight partisan battles, nevertheless was often able to rise above them for the betterment of all of Nevadas citizens. Partisan gridlock was never an option for him. Action as a reflection of ones conscience always was.

Although his skills for finding common ground were well known, whenever an issue warranted it, few were more formidable in the trenches than Dick Bryan. This was a man who once threatened to shut down the US Senate if his colleagues didnt develop a deeper understanding of the threat that the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository was presenting the people of Nevada. As vice chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, Bryan insisted that the women who had lodged sexual misconduct complaints against a fellow Senate colleague were to be treated with dignity and respect. This was a good two decades before the #MeToo movement. Because of Bryans urging, committee members followed his lead.

Bryan had opponents. But he didnt have enemies. The late Nevada Supreme Court justice Myron E. Leavitt, then lieutenant governor, opposed Bryan in the 1982 Democratic gubernatorial primary. This wasnt the first time Leavitt had competed against a Bryan on the ballot. Leavitt had also run against Dick Bryans father, Oscar, for Clark County justice of the peace in 1958. Just as Oscar Bryan was elected, Dick Bryan defeated Leavitt in the 1982 primary. A few years later, Dick Bryan appointed Leavitt to the Clark County District Court bench. It was a typical Dick Bryan gesture. Not only was Leavitt the right person for the position, it was a reminder that politics should never preclude professional decency and personal grace.

I know from my own experience even as a member of a different political party Ive benefited from Dick Bryans quiet counsel. Hallway conversations in law offices, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and late-night phone calls have provided fatherly wisdom, reminders of how to remove some of the sting from realpolitik, and forward-looking guidance. You can never forget Dicks voice when you hear it, particularly when it comes booming to you over the phone. The writer Saul Bellow once said that as a young man in Chicago he could walk down any street during one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelts fireside chats and he could feel every word pouring out of the windows into the souls of the working people of the neighborhood. Dicks voice has a similar quality. It is a voice of immense enthusiasm, a voice that reassures you that our best times are still ahead, a voice that pours into you and spurs you to ask more of yourself and to strive to do more.

In May 2001, Bryan returned to our campus to deliver the commencement address to our graduates. His words had nothing to do with political strategy or policy, though he was extremely well versed in both. Instead, the message was much more personal.