Important race on Minnesota ballot
ST. PAUL (AP) — Minnesota
voters may be fixated
on the presidential race or
other high-profile races, but
there’s an important race on
the back of the ballot.
Minnesota Supreme
Court Associate Justice Paul
Thissen is facing voters for
the first time since his appointment
in 2018. Challenging
him is frequent candidate
Michelle MacDonald, who is
making her fourth bid for a
seat on a court that has disciplined
her before over professional
conduct, and could
impose new restrictions on
her law license.
Both candidates are hoping
voters turn over their ballots
to the state’s nonpartisan
judicial races. In 2016, 26%
fewer votes were cast for Supreme
Court justice than for
president.
Thiseen, 53, of Minneapolis,
served 16 years in the
Minnesota House as a Democrat,
and was speaker from
2013 to 2015. He made brief
runs for governor in 2010
and 2018.
He also practiced law
for 25 years, arguing cases
before appellate courts as a
public defender, handling
complex litigation for large
and small businesses, advising
health care and longterm
care providers, and
providing free services for
victims of domestic abuse
and families with disabled
children.
Thissen told the St. Paul
Pioneer Press he views his
legislative experience as an
asset on the court.
“One of your jobs as
a judge is to step into the
shoes of the litigant, to hear
their views from their perspective,”
he said. “Having
traveled to all 87 counties
and talked to thousands and
thousands of people, I think
that experience… helps me
do that part of the job.”
MacDonald, 58, is a conservative
family law specialist
from West St. Paul who
gets more votes than challengers
in judicial races normally
do. She received 47%
in 2014 against Justice David
Lillehaug, 41% in 2016
against Justice Natalie Hudson
and 44% in 2018 against
Justice Margaret Churtich.
She said she’s running again
to “stop the corruption, the
legal tyranny which happens
with law enforcement, lawyers,
prosecutors and judges.
… The system is corrupt to
the core.”
MacDonald has been embroiled
in controversies. In
2014, she was acquitted of a
drunken driving charge but
later convicted of a misdemeanor
for obstruction of the
legal process. The Minnesota
Supreme Court suspended
her law license in 2018 for
60 days and placed her on
two years’ probation after
the Lawyers Professional
Responsibility Board determined
that she had committed
professional misconduct.
Last week, a court-appointed
referee recommended
to the Supreme
Court that she be placed on
supervised probation for a
year for causing “harm to
both the public and legal
profession.” The lawyers
board alleged she violated
her probation by again
falsely impugning Dakota
County Judge David Knutson.
He presided over the
2013 child-custody trial of
MacDonald’s client Sandra
Grazzini-Rucki, who was
herself later convicted of
hiding her two daughters
from their father for two
years.
“Can attorneys not talk
about bad judges? I guess we
can’t,” MacDonald told the
Star Tribune of Minneapolis.