Wade Bowie was nominated Saturday afternoon to be the new Allen County attorney.
With no one else seeking the position, Bowie’s nomination came quickly with a unanimous vote of the 24 precinct people who gathered. Nine others — total for the county is 42 — sent proxies favoring Bowie.
It will be up to Gov. Sam Brownback to confirm the nomination.
Bowie, assistant attorney since September 2005, will replace Jerry Hathaway, who resigned to accept a prosecutor’s position in Springfield, Mo.
In comments before the vote, Bowie said he was a firm believer in Martin Luther King Jr.’s admonition: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“I have a copy of that on my office door,” he said.
As Hathaway’s assistant, Bowie has dealt with all aspects of the office and said he had a passion for child in need of care cases.
“I will have an open door policy and at any time will be eager to talk with people about active cases or anything else they have on their minds,” Bowie said.
He grew up in metropolitan Detroit and middle Tennessee, graduating from Columbia, Tenn., High School in 1994. He began college and then left for a while to work.
“But, I had promised my grandparents I’d get an education,” which prompted Bowie to enroll in Washburn University’s criminal justice degree program. He was graduated from the Topeka school in 2001. He earned a degree from Washburn’s law school in 2004. He spent a year as a contract attorney for Shawnee County, home to Topeka, doing child in need of care cases before taking the assistant’s job in Allen County.
During the past 51⁄2 years, Bowie said he had developed a sound relationship with local and area law enforcement officers and Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services workers.
He owns a home in Iola, is president of the Allen County Young Professionals and works in support of the Allen County Animal Rescue Foundation.
Republicans pick Bowie for county attorney
