Editorial: Swanson delivers slew of promised priorities

12/30/2006

From predatory lending to predators online, she's on the case.


Published: December 30, 2006


If leadership skills are evident and competency is clear, there's nothing like elevating the No. 2 person to a tough job. Number twos know the work because they've been doing much of it; they know the challenges because they're on the team already facing them. And if they're really good, they have concrete ideas of their own about how to do the job well.


Lori Swanson, Minnesota's attorney general-elect, is already showing signs of living up to Minnesotans' hopes for that outcome. Her legal competency already proven as solicitor general, Swanson only needed to demonstrate her leadership skills to win over the voters.


During the campaign she struck all the right notes, invoking the records and philosophies of past AGs Hatch, Lord, Humphrey, Spannaus: "All stood up for the little guy," she said in a Star Tribune interview.


She spoke of the trust Minnesotans have in the office, the hundreds of calls and letters it gets every day. "A lot of what we do is solve problems for people. We're kind of the people's law firm," she said.


That it is. But Swanson also ran on concrete ideas -- the kind that come from heeding those calls and letters, and from listening to people along the campaign trail. She said she wanted to better protect Minnesotans against predatory lending, housing fraud, identity theft, violation of domestic no-contact orders, adults who solicit minors, price fixing ... .


The list was long, but less than two months after the election it has begun to form a priority list for the new Legislature -- a body controlled by her DFL Party, an advantage lame duck Attorney General Mike Hatch never enjoyed. One by one, the AG-elect's proposals have hit the headlines: First came the formation of a study group to tackle home-lending abuses. Then she announced proposals on cell-phone plan protections, college aid for veterans and consumer protections for active-duty service people.


This week she capped 2006 with a slew of proposals targeting identity theft, Internet bullying, predatory cyber talk to minors and data theft. It's a terrific start -- and this time the Legislature is listening.