I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Sept. 6, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
Tuesday's Republican state House 4A primary will see one familiar and one unfamiliar opponent square off in a race that does not feature a Republican-endorsed candidate.
Jeff Aakhus will be facing Bill Lawrence, both of Bemidji.
Aakhus is a returning Republican candidate who lost the 1994 House race by less than 300 votes to incumbent Bob Johnson, DFL-Bemidji, and Lawrence for eight years, has published the Native American Press/Ojibwe News in Bemidji, which has a circulation of about 5,000 in northern Minnesota and the Twin Cities area.
Lawrence is a new face on the political scene, entering the race last winter because he said Johnson must be replaced because of his three drunken-driving arrests in six weeks last fall. Johnson is not seeking re-election this fall, and DFL-endorsed Gail Skare of Bemidji is unopposed in Tuesday's DFL primary.
Both Aakhus and Lawrence, who have cited Johnson's legal problems, have experienced minor legal difficulties of their own, however.
Lawrence was convicted in 1988 of gross misdemeanor charges of illegally buying and selling Red Lake walleye. While upheld by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, he had challenged a 1951 state rule that fish caught on the reservation can only be sold outside the reservation through the band-owned Red Lake Fisheries Association.
Aakhus has had to face questions about legal problems his son encountered earlier this year. His son, Robert, set fire to a garage, which later ignited the adjacent house. He said it was something his son did because of the effects from mixing alcohol and a medication he takes due to having AIDS. His son is a hemophiliac and contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, Aakhus said.
The son is awaiting sentencing on a felony charge of setting a negligent fire.
Although Aakhus was the Republican-endorsed candidate for the House 4A seat in 1994, neither candidate is endorsed this year.
Aakhus said he missed the endorsing convention because he was with his son who was in a St. Paul hospital. Although he admits he still might not have been endorsed this year even if he had been at the convention, he said he had no chance at all without being there.
"The public needs to know why because I have always intended to run," he said. "Being a good parent, I had to stand behind my family. Instead of being at the endorsement convention, I was with my son."
Many of Aakhus' 1994 issues resurfaced again this year as his campaign platform.
Maintaining a citizen Legislature is especially important to him, he said. He is an advocate of term limits, and said he believes most Minnesotans agree.
"If it's OK to put term limits on our president, why can't we have term limits at the lower levels (of government)," Aakhus said. "Every so often you need to get new blood down there (in the state Legislature)."
He also will focus on issues such as crime, education, property rights and government accountability, which is of major concern to him.
For instance, he said the recently adopted Wetland Conservation Act is a prime example of an instance where there was no accountability. The law-making process has to be changed so rules written by government agencies are reviewed by the legislative committee responsible for the original legislation, Aakhus said.
Other concerns included finding a way to raise the amount spent per student in public schools without raising taxes, decreasing Minnesota's business taxes -- which he said are out of line with the rest of the nation -- and trying to move the state's primary election up so there would be more time for candidates to focus on issues before the general election.
Lawrence's main concern also is "accountability and credibility in government," he said. "Citizens should know where their tax dollars are going."
Lawrence is tired of the "arrogance of power demonstrated by present area legislators," and he sense it is time for a change in government.
In a survey Lawrence recently distributed via local newspapers, issues important to people were, respectively, taxes, health care, welfare reform, crime, education and government ethics. These will be the issues he campaigns on, he said.
Being from Bemidji and because of his knowledge of tribal government, Lawrence said he would work on issues affecting this area. He also said the work he has done with government agencies has given him a knowledge of bureaucracies.
"I can bring some experience (to St. Paul) no other candidate can," he said. "I know how the bureaucracies work, and I have worked at three different levels of government -- tribal, federal and state."
Lawrence, 57, is a 1957 graduate of Bemidji High School, earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Bemidji State University and received a law degree from the University of North Dakota. A Vietnam veteran, he rose to the rank of captain in the Marine Corps during his 1962-66 service.
He has been a director of economic development for the Red Lake Reservation, education administrator for Indian programs for the state Education Department, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent for its Colorado River Agency in Parker, Ariz., business manager for the Fort Mojave Indian in Needles, Calif., and a senior contract representative for Honeywell Inc., in Minneapolis.
He is a member and past president of the Minnesota Minority Media Coalition, past member of the Minnesota State Advisory council for Vocational Education and past president of the board of trustees for the Mojave Valley Elementary School District in Arizona. He is a life member of the National Rifle Association and holds a private pilot's license.
He and his wife, Judy, who is a teacher, live in Bemidji. They have three adult children.
Aakhus, 42, joined the Army after graduating from Bemidji High School in 1972, serving from 1972-86 as an infantryman and in Army Intelligence as a computer and systems analyst.
He has worked with computers for more than 20 years, six of which were spent working for Apple Computers and in the aerospace industry in California. Most recently he has been employed as a seasonal computer systems analyst for H&R Block offices in Bemidji, Bagley and Fosston. He also operates his own computer consultant business.
He is in his second term as president of the local Sons of Norway Lodge; he's also vice chairman of the Beltrami County Republican Party, a former Bemidji Lions Club member, and current member of the Eagles Club, Bemidji Retired Military Personnel Club, Minnesota Land Owner Rights Association and National Rifle Association. He also was an assistant pastor and youth ministries director in California before returning to Bemidji.
He and his wife, Belle, have three sons and they live in Bemidji.
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