Election 2022: Martha Holton Dimick or Mary Moriarty?

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Voters in Hennepin County will face a stark choice Nov. 8 in deciding who should serve as the next Hennepin County attorney. As a former prosecutor and longtime law school professor advocating for criminal justice reform, I strongly believe that Martha Holton Dimick is the best qualified candidate to become the new chief prosecutor for the county. My belief is based in part on observing the consequences of a similar choice that voters in Pima County (Tucson), Ariz., faced in the fall of 2020.

My wife and I live in a downtown Minneapolis condo during part of the year, a convenient location for me to teach at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. We spend winter and spring in Tucson, where I have been a visiting professor at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. At both schools, I have taught courses on reforming our criminal justice system, with a focus on expanding restorative justice.

Hennepin County and Pima County are strikingly similar, starting with their current populations (1,282,000 vs. 1,056,000). Their largest cities, Minneapolis and Tucson, have similar populations (439,000 vs. 547,000) and liberal political leanings, and are surrounded by more politically moderate suburbs.

In fall 2020, the long-serving Pima County attorney retired and voters were faced with the choice of replacing her with an experienced prosecutor from her office who promised continued reform versus a public defender who had no prosecution experience and promised to radically transform the office in a "progressive" way. As happened in San Francisco and then elsewhere in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, voters chose the "progressive prosecutor," and she assumed office in January 2021.

Her election has been a major setback for Pima County. Within her first few months, her inexperience and issues with ethics rules caused the public resignation of the office's chief civil deputy, the office's ethics attorney, and the head of the office's torts (civil law) unit. Three other attorneys in that unit soon left.

Worse was to come in combating crime. Within her first six months in office, the heads of the office's homicide unit, charging section, violent crimes section, and conviction integrity attorney all resigned or were demoted to the point they felt forced out and then left. Instead, she brought in a team of people who had virtually no prosecution experience or even experience in running an office. Morale plummeted and has remained low. Almost one-fourth of the office's employees have left.

As one highly respected former career Pima County prosecutor told me, "the experiment of having a defense lawyer with no experience in prosecution, no experience in effectively managing people, and who fails to take advice, was a huge mistake. Pima County is less safe and the office is simply a mess."

Voters in Hennepin County can avoid making this same mistake. They can elect Dimick, who has served as the first north Minneapolis community prosecutor (hired and appointed by then Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar), then as the Minneapolis deputy city attorney, and finally as a Hennepin County district judge for 10 years. Dimick is the clear choice between the two candidates. She has the prosecution, management and judicial experience to be an effective county attorney for everyone, who can strike the right balance between protecting the public and reforming the system.

Her opponent, Mary Moriarty, the former Hennepin County public defender, is not qualified to become the county's next chief prosecutor. Moriarty, who is running as a "progressive prosecutor," has never prosecuted a case. If she is elected, it's likely we will see a debilitating exodus of experienced prosecutors, like in Tucson. Given Moriarty's history, we can expect very difficult relations between her and law enforcement, already facing depleted numbers and lagging recruitment. Moriarty has been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and others who narrowly lost their attempt to eliminate the Minneapolis Police Department last fall. We cannot return to that perilous path. Now, more than ever, we need to be bolstering our public safety efforts, not tearing them down.

All voters must realize that, while violent crime has become frighteningly too common in Minneapolis, the suburbs are facing growing threats of the same types of carjackings and other serious crimes. I have been a longtime supporter of both restorative justice and increased police accountability. But addressing our violent crime epidemic needs to be everyone's top priority. That is what is at stake on the ballot this November. This is not an issue of one's political party or where one lives in the county. If you want to improve public safety, promote balanced reform and avoid a repeat of what has happened in Tucson, San Francisco and elsewhere, Martha Holton Dimick deserves your vote. So do the residents of Hennepin County.

Hank Shea is a senior distinguished fellow at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where he has taught for the last 15 years. He previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the district of Minnesota for 20 years. The opinions expressed here are solely his own.