Comments on: Who should be Anoka county Attorney?

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 19:36:21 +0000

I can tell you from personal and professional experience, Johnson (both his father’s regime and Brad’s own decisions on prosecution of cases) is worthless. He has consistantly re-victimized people by refusing to prosecute crimes “in the interest of justice,” whatever that means. I guess I feel the “interest of justice” is getting criminals off the street and helping restore the victim’s feeling of safety and humanity as much as possible. Besides that fact, there was just an article about Robert Johnson and the Anoka County Atty’s office directing $420,000 in tax payer dollars to Brad Johnson’s legal firm (in which he is a shareholder) without the knowledge of the County Board. Dirty stuff. Besides, Palumbo seems like a stand up guy and has former victims he worked with supporting him and working on his campaign. Pretty good rapport with the people he represents, and local law enforcement is supporting him. They are the ones catching the bad guys and will support who they think will put them away.

By: eric z

eric z — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:56:01 +0000

I voted absentee. For Johnson. He is younger, and despite father and grandfather holding the office, he bypassed the easy nepotism route of going into the office out of law school. Prior to working with Freeman downtown, he gained several years of civil practice experience in a North Carolina firm. He bypassed becoming part of the existing Anoka County old boy network, up to now, which I view favorably. The endorsements for Palumbo are old boy, with a heavy Barna, Guzy flavor to his candidacy too – the dual campaign chairmanship included. The Barna, Guzy firm already has populated half the Anoka County District 10 bench, and diversity generally is a good thing. Either of the candidates would be okay. Better than okay, each would be good. Johnson holds out the promise of being well more than his father and grandfather, although the Anoka County pattern is to reelect so that this likely would be the toughest election for whichever of the two wins. Over the last several elections, Robert M.A. Johnson’s run unopposed, as was the case for the county sheriff. That reelection tendency is why this is an important race. Your posting on it is helpful – many should realize the implications of the reelection phenomenon, and make a careful choice.

By: Virgil Samms

Virgil Samms — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:03:14 +0000

Brad Johnson – I was never very impressed with the quarterbacking job he did for the Vikings.