James H. "Jim" Brown

Who is James H. "Jim" Brown?

James Harvey "Jim" Brown, Jr., is a political consultant and political commentator based in Baton Rouge long active in Louisiana Democratic politics. In 1972, he was elected to both the Louisiana State Senate, to which he served two terms, and to the 1973 Constitutional Convention. He was Louisiana secretary of state from 1980 to 1988, and he ran unsuccessfully for governor in the 1987 nonpartisan blanket primary. He was elected insurance commissioner in 1991 and served until his resignation in October 2000. Brown's political career closed with a six-month prison sentence for lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the status of an insurance company.

In 2004, Brown wrote a book entitled Justice Denied: How the Federal Justice System Failed Former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown, seeking to refute the charges of which he was convicted in federal court and to rehabilitate his reputation. Brown was barred from practicing law until at least the end of 2006. On September 30, 2008, the Louisiana Supreme Court reinstated his right to resume his legal practice.