By now I expect everyone knows that Brad Johnson, an Assistant County Attorney in Hennepin County, (i.e., with Mark Freeman's office), is the son of present Anoka County Attorney Robert M.A. Johnson, and that M.A. followed his father, Robert Johnson, into office.
Everyone should know that Brad Johnson could have taken an easy career path out of law school, and worked for the county but he did not, instead taking a position with a North Carolina large firm where he did extensive work for years, of a complex civil practice nature. He then, at Freeman's request, moved to the Hennepin County position where he did criminal trial work, with a special interest in white-collar prosecutions.
He avoided the entrenched position of learning, here's how we do it here - when he could have.
Tony Palumbo, Johnson's opponent has years of experience in Anoka County in the prosecutor's office. If there's a here's how we do it here candidate, it is not the son of the present county attorney, it is Palumbo.
How entrenched are you in the old-boys' here's how we do it here network, than to have the duo of campaign manager heads: Natalie Steffen and the Guzy lawyer of the Barna, Guzy firm. Remember that is the firm that Bernie Steffen, Natalie's spouse, was in for years before his death in the 2002, I believe.
Is it natural to have the big fish in the county's law pond hand pick M.A. Johnson's successor? Of course it can be debated that we have only two co-chair individuals acting on their own with respect for Palumbo, and not acting in any representative capacity for a locally powerful firm but one made up of numerous partners and associates whose minds may differ, etc.; that argument exists.
Go figure. You vote, so you read the tea leaves your way.
With half the judges on the Anoka County District 10 bench being Barna, Guzy alums, my belief is that an infusion of new blood into the County's legal community would be advisible, and that such a step is achieved by voting to give the post to the present actual outsider, Brad Johnson, and not to the clear insider, Palumbo.
I realize this is not a needed thought for the August 10 primary.
The two will remain on the ballot until the general election. There is no primary narrowing of the field.
However, it is a race that is important and one that should not be neglected simply because for years and years the position basically went uncontested.
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PROSECUTORIAL DISCRETION: One interesting observation was given me by a person I bumped into at Coborns. The civil end of the county attorney's practice has the Board of Commissioners and the county staff as "the client," so that means policy marching orders largely are handed down and followed on the civil side of the prosecutor's office. That would continue to be the same with either Palumbo, (presently head of civil affairs under M.A. Johnson), or Brad Johnson as the next county attorney.
Criminal policy, however, such as whether to focus more or less upon white collar offenses as they might happen in Anoka County vs. a "law and order" intent to act as the Sheriff wants, with the Sheriff and other law enforcement authorities being "the client" calling the shots. How to run the prosecution end of the office is discretionary with the County Attorney - he sets policy in the criminal end of the office practice and is not as bound on that end of things as with the civil branch.
Whether that analysis favors Johnson or Palumbo can be debated, as my understanding is that Palumbo did do criminal trial work earlier in his career.
With the long time entrenched Sheriff retiring, and correct me if I am wrong this is the Sheriff with the Mayor Bebeg - Morgan Grams taxi-service situation on his watch, we should want the two offices to certainly work together generally in harmony, but with independent judgment heading each, not as if it's some form of marriage or bondage or a hierarchy.
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THE "HERE'S HOW WE GET ENTRENCHED" BOTTOM LINE: "Entrenched" is years in the office, and having the heavyweight established county law firm's apparent backing in part via the backing of long-time county diva Steffen, (back from her stint at Met Council where her prior pro-high-density-growth approach fit well and who now seeks a seat and a say on the Anoka County Board). At least to me that is the meaning of "entrenched."
Is such interlocking and entrechment a good thing for the rest of us, i.e., those outside of the ranks that are interlocking and enjoying it?
My vote is no.
But often things are not a simple yes-no situation. Consider:
With Steffen seeking the County Board seat and being co-chair of the Palumbo effort, I fear yet stronger and more interlocked concentrations of power if she is elected to the County Board and holding yet another public sector office while dedicated to policy expectations that seem a clear and a present danger for the north end of the county - or at least for those there not wanting to see their rural lifestyle situation become the equivalent of Blaine, Coon Rapids, or the new poster child of ill-conceived growth, "government planning," and metro-wide advocacy --- that poster child being Ramsey with its Ramsey Town Center - aka "COR," as the new group of present city decision makers have renamed and embraced the same old bad idea, now as their own, now bearing their naming stamp on it.
The Ramsey newbies went a step further than the old interlocking powers cared to go.
They not only embrace the old ways, they had the city take the extra step to buy and own what the older power bloc only promoted and assisted while the private sector owned and acted.
And the newbies did this not in a boom market or without a history of failure as the previous decision making powers faced, but with failure apparent and times bad for land speculation, be it government run dealings or private sector risk.
I suggest that as a rational counterargument against new blood in office being inherently better than keeping to the here's how we do things here ways.
More specifically in terms of personalities and choices in an August 10 primary, is Natalie Steffen of the old guard, or Matt Look of the newbies the best choice for the County Board District 1 office - a decision between "Ramsey Town Center" naming and embracing of a clear government-backed failure, and "COR" naming and embracing for the same failure, but now a government owned risk; is that anyone's best answer? I think each of the two is flawed, touched by the similar curse of town center bad decision making, and I favor Terry Hendriksen as going outside of a choice between the pair of town center advocates to one who has consistently been a voice urging caution and advocating measured and restrained growth instead of a headlong plunge.
Put another way: When here's how we do things here is not scrutinized, but followed to new degrees, it can backfire. And if you do not think excessive growth is the actual agenda of the present Ramsey council, in full harmony with the Metropolitan Council's desires, you have not read their 2030 Comprehensive Plan in which they authorize growth levels in excess of those mandated by Metropolitan Council. Enough is not enough for some, I suppose.
I believe the "COR" thing is a set up for one humongo backfire, where the lesson of history was ignored. These guys with their Landform thing are pushing on a rope against a bum market, as if they are special and the trend is not their friend but they, for some reason of hubris I guess, can buck the trend and succeed where private enterprise failed.
Believe as you choose.