Timothy Connolly pointed out in his response to my posting of excerpts from the north Minneapolis community newspaper "NorthNews," that U.S. Attorney Thomas Heffelfinger has sought no elective office.
Tim Connolly wrote, "In the paragraph beginning "The need for credibility..." there is a factual error in that Tom Heffelfinger has sought no elective office." It appears that Mr. Heffelfinger did indeed run unsuccessfully for Hennepin County attorney in 1986. This news item was retrieved from the Star Tribune archival search from the 1986 Hennepin County Attorney race: "Tom Johnson's post-race focus is on family matters Published on November 6, 1986 By Dan Oberdorfer; Staff Writer Hennepin County Attorney Tom Johnson narrowly won reelection to a third term, defeating Tom Heffelfinger 52 percent to 48 percent. Although Johnson led throughout the night Tuesday as votes were being counted, it wasn't until about 4 a.m. Wednesday that he felt certain of victory." ---Attribution: Star Tribune archives Clearly Mr. Heffelfinger is a well-known and prominent Minnesota Republican figure. Mr. Heffelfinger served on the State of Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, for the Board Term 1/98 - 01/00, listing his Party Affiliation as Republican: http://www.legal-ledger.com/archive/408marty.htm See also this reference from CityPages archives: http://www.citypages.com/databank/17/793/article2527.asp Tim Connolly noted that he had not yet read the entire NorthNews editorial. If NorthNews had a web site, then it would have been easier to have clipped the entire editorial, or to have provided a link to it. Here is another excerpt from the NorthNews editorial: "Federal prosecutors have a necessary, difficult and unenviable job. Most of the time they deserve the public's support, and they make it easy for the public to support them. However, when prosecutors make an elected official's indictment public, especially through a news conference, as they did in this case, they create and nurture a public assumption of guilt for a defendant whose professional life depends on the public's assumptions. That's an enormous amount of power, and the public is ill-served unless the prosecutors describe in detail the evidence that supports their conclusions. In this case, the prosecutors didn't do it. There's no law that says they have to. But they ought to. One group of public servants (federal prosecutors) has exercised an extraordinary power that could ruin another public servant. The public should be able to find out whether and how well they did their homework." "For example, the indictment says that Biernat lied to investigators. It does not tell what Biernat said that isn't true. Why not? The indictment says the union's money paid for Biernat's plumbing work. It does not say how prosecutors determined that money was connected to the work. Why not? It suggests a troubling lack of certainty that the evidence would support the conclusions, and that makes the indictment harder to believe." ---Attribution: NorthNews, April 25, 2002 page 2 I still consider the editorial to have been well balanced. I agree with the editorial that if Council Member Biernat is guilty, he should immediately resign. Regarding the casting of aspersions on the Minneapolis DFL---there are probably as many out there who think it's plausible that Bush appointees can act to stir up trouble for a local DFL officeholder as a distraction in an election year with tight gubernatorial, legislative and U.S. Senatorial races, as who think the that a Democratic U.S. Attorney appointee would sweep under the rug the investigation and prosecution of a legitimate corruption case. I don't even know Mr. Heffelfinger. But I'm willing to trust that he is an honest and honorable man whose office's actions will do nothing to shake our trust in the justice system. I'm going to defer to editor/publisher Kerry Ashmore to defend NorthNews' editorial stance on this matter. Jeffrey Strand Shingle Creek/4th Ward _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
