University Of Minnesota / Johnson will seek regent seat

02/21/2007

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press


Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson said Tuesday he's running for a seat on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, even though Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn't recommend him for the job.

"I never expected Tim Pawlenty to break ranks and appoint me," Johnson said in a phone interview from his home in Willmar.

"But I don't think the DFL-controlled Legislature is going to take the slate the governor has put forward. I think there's going to be some adjustments in that slate."

Pawlenty did, however, make it difficult for Democrats to dump anyone from his slate. Saying he wants to make the U's 12-member governing board more diverse, last week he recommended filling the four open seats with a black man, two white women and a female Asian-American student.

He proposed re-electing two incumbent regents — Peter Bell of Minneapolis, representing the 5th Congressional District, and at-large representative Cynthia Lesher, of New Brighton — to new six-year terms. He endorsed psychologist Linda Cohen of Minnetonka for the board's other at-large seat and university law student Venora Hung of Golden Valley for the board's student slot.

Johnson will seek an at-large seat, pitting himself against Lesher and Cohen.

Hung also faces a challenge. Sen. Sandra Pappas, DFLSt. Paul, the co-chair of a legislative regents screening committee, said Maureen Cisneros, a University of Minnesota-Duluth graduate student from West St. Paul, notified her that she would run for the student seat on the board.

Johnson, who was defeated last fall after serving 28 years in the Legislature, was the best known of the 11 candidates the Regent Candidate Advisory Council recommended to Pawlenty in January. The former senator said he was told he was one of the council's top-ranked candidates, "and that encouraged me to continue."

Moreover, he said, Pawlenty's candidates are all from the metro area.

"What happened to balance?" he asked.

He thinks the governor made a political mistake by not recommending him.

"Had he done it," Johnson said, "he'd have bought great favor with the DFL-controlled Legislature."

Many DFL senators are dissatisfied with Pawlenty's slate, Pappas said. "There's a lot of support for Dean."

DFL Rep. Tom Rukavina, of Virginia, the House co-chairman of the regents screening committee, said last week he also was disappointed in Pawlenty's slate.

But Pappas said all of the governor's candidates are well-qualified, and "race and gender are big concerns."

The joint House-Senate regents committee will screen the candidates Tuesday, Pappas said. The panel can accept or reject Pawlenty's candidates or simply not act. If the committee turns down one of the governor's nominees, he must submit another name for the vacancy.

The new regents will be elected at a joint convention of the House and Senate on or before April 1. Legislators can elect anyone to the board, regardless of whom the governor recommends.