Critics say Duluth judicial candidate fought improvements to domestic violence work as city attorney

DULUTH – A candidate running for a rare opening in northeast Minnesota’s Sixth Judicial District allegedly pushed back on a victim advocate position — which was to be paid for with grants — and work on a domestic violence response program when he led Duluth’s City Attorney’s Office.

A former colleague and the head of a Minnesota crime nonprofit that helped administer the grant said Gunnar Johnson told them he didn’t want to add another person to the office in 2018 when federal money was available to fill the role.

Johnson said in a recent Duluth News Tribune story that he had pushed city prosecutors for better domestic violence outcomes as city attorney. And in a 2018 story in the same newspaper, he said the work of the victim advocate, who was ultimately hired, had made “a huge difference.”

However, Minnesota Alliance on Crime executive director Bobbi Holtberg said this week that when she reached out to Johnson by phone seven years ago to explain the position and the likelihood the city would be awarded funding, he wasn’t interested.



https://www.startribune.com/critics-say-duluth-judicial-candidate-fought-improvements-to-domestic-violence-work-as-city-attorney/601169513