Gunnar Johnson

Peter Raukar

Shawn Reed

John Schulte

Gerald Wallace

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REGIONAL- While not as rare as a total solar eclipse, North Country voters will have the opportunity to experience an unusual sight when they go to the polls Aug. 13— a contested race for Sixth District court judge.
Five Duluth-area attorneys are vying for the seat being vacated by retiring Judge Dale Harris. The top two vote-getters will advance to the November general election.
“I think that we were all thrown a real curveball when the honorable Dale Harris decided not to seek reelection, which created a very rare open judicial election with multiple participants,” said candidate John Schulte at a recent candidate’s forum. “This is something that hasn’t happened in the district in, I believe, 14 years.”
The power of incumbency for district court judges in Minnesota is overwhelming. In 2022, 93 of 94 district court judge races were uncontested, and the incumbent prevailed in the other race. In an August 2022 Minnpost article it was reported that since 1996 only five incumbent judges had been defeated in elections. According to Herbert Kritzer, a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota law school, the risks of running against an incumbent are extremely high.
“There’s a good reason local lawyers don’t challenge local judges,” he said. “If they challenge them and lose, they’re going to have to stand before those judges as a lawyer. That tends to be a pretty good disincentive.”
Sitting judges tend to resign before the end of their terms, and those seats are filled by appointment by the governor.
While the most visible part of the job for the general public is criminal cases, district judges also deal with a wide range of probate, juvenile, and family law matters. They also can hear appeals of civil disputes involving less than $15,000 that were first adjudicated in conciliation court.
With no incumbent to face off against, the Sixth District seat, chambered in Duluth, is an exceptional occasion that has drawn a crowded field. Candidates Gunnar Johnson, Shawn Reed, Gerald Wallace, and Schulte participated in a candidate’s forum on July 10, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Duluth. The fifth candidate, Peter Raukar, was unable to attend, but provided a statement that was read at the forum.
Here’s a summary of the credentials and comments of the candidates at the forum.
Gunnar Johnson
Johnson, 56, has been an attorney for the past three decades. He attended UMD and earned his law degree from the American University College of Law in Washington, D.C. During his time in the nation’s capital, he worked as a law clerk for the U.S. Department of Justice. After starting his career in private practice, he joined the Minnesota attorney general’s staff, serving as counsel for the Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation. Johnson was the Duluth city attorney for 12 years until he resigned in August 2020 after an investigation into complaints about his management of the office, according to an article in the Duluth News Tribune. The complaints over the course of several months were related to his personnel management style. Johnson told the News Tribune that he “strongly disagreed” with how the investigation was conducted and viewed the report as “inconclusive.”
“Other than some really minor items, the allegations were unsubstantiated,” he told the News Tribune. “However, it has become abundantly clear that this was going to be a distraction, and that is why I decided to move on.”
Johnson is currently in private practice with Overom Law, and serves as the attorney for Hermantown and numerous other governmental organizations.
Johnson told the forum audience that a desire to be of service to the public is what led him to file for the position.
“I have a lot of public service work behind me, and I’ve really enjoyed that and found it very fulfilling,” he said. “I think my 30 years of experience will be very valuable in the position.”
Peter Raukar
Peter Raukar, who is a partner with Trial Group North in Duluth, is a Hibbing native who attended the University of St. Thomas and received his law degree from the Rutgers School of Law. He began his career as a clerk with the Michigan Court of Appeals and worked for another Duluth law firm for a time before moving to Trial Group North about six years ago. His primary focus there has been on civil litigation defense work, defending insured businesses in personal injury matters, employment law, product liability, and real estate disputes.
In the statement he provided for the forum, Raukar made his case for why he would be the best choice for the job.
“Having practiced before over 100 judges as a civil litigator and spoken with many district court appellate judges about their jobs, and having spent several years working for the Michigan Court of Appeals where I assisted the court in writing a plethora of opinions in various civil and criminal matters, I know the qualities needed to be a good judge. I believe that I possess these qualities. I have open mindedness and a well-rounded understanding of the law to consider the arguments on each side of any given dispute that would come before me. I also have the patience, demeanor and right temperament to work through matters with prosecutors, public defenders and private counsel.”
Shawn Reed
Reed, 53, is a partner in the Bray and Reed law practice in Duluth. Originally from Esko, he attended UMD and William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. While attending law school, Reed worked in Ramsey and Hennepin counties as a prosecuting attorney. He began private practice in Duluth in 1997 and was with two other firms prior to forming Bray and Reed in 2020.
Reed touted his extensive experience as a trial lawyer as his primary qualification for the job.
“I’m a trial attorney and a hearing officer,” he said. “As a trial attorney I spend almost every day in court dealing with criminal and civil cases. In criminal law, I have experience as a prosecuting attorney, a special prosecutor and a private defense attorney. In civil law, I handle a range of cases including divorces, high conflict custody cases and civil suits. In my role as a hearing officer, I make tough decisions based off of facts and law that directly affect people’s lives. I have the necessary experience to serve as your next judge from day one.”
Reed made a pitch to get out the vote for a primary that will likely have low voter turnout, emphasizing the impact judges have on individual lives.
“In reality, a judge is going to be more likely to have a direct impact on your life than any other elected official,” he said. “Judges make decisions that affect a person’s liberty. Judges make a decision that impacts a person’s daily life. Judges make decisions that impact families, and they make decisions that impact property interests. Because of that, we need judges that are experienced, we need judges that are ready to serve. We need judges who are fair and impartial. We need judges that can weigh the evidence, apply the law and make the hard decisions. Well, I have that experience. I’m ready to serve.”
John Schulte
Schulte, 52, is an attorney with the Hanft Fride Law Firm. He has been practicing law for 28 years and currently focuses on areas of family law, landlord-tenant law, and other general civil matters.
He earned his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School. Schulte described some of the roles he’s had in the justice system that would inform his work as judge.
“I’ve practiced in family law, I’ve been a guardian ad litem, and I’m a mediator,” he said. And most importantly, I served as a judicial referee or a type of magistrate judge for eight years (in the Sixth District). So, I’ve worn the robe. I know what it takes.”
Schulte cited the breadth of his experience, including that as a judicial referee, as being well suited to the wide variety of cases heard by the court.
“One of the reasons why this is such a unique and difficult job is one week you might be doing criminal arraignments, the next week you might be doing family law trials, the next week you might be doing several motions, and in the next week you might be presiding over your child protection calendar,” he said. “You literally sort of have to be the cliche as Jack of all trades. I’ve done a little bit of everything, which I think kind of lends itself perfectly to what a district court judge is tasked with doing on a day-to-day basis.”
Repeating a common theme, Schulte said that listening would be a cornerstone of his work.
“When they ask people their impressions of the court system, a lot of times the responses they give are less about the outcome, whether they’ve won or lost, but (more about) whether they felt like they were treated fairly, heard, and received their day in court. That’s what matters.”
Schulte’s second cornerstone would be following the law as it is written.
“Sometimes that sounds really simple,” he said. “And sometimes the law doesn’t provide a clear answer, which is why this is a hard job and you’d have to use some discretion. But we can’t substitute what we think the law should be or ought to be. We have to apply it as the statutes are drafted and as the legislature has given us that that framework.”
Gerald Wallace
The youngest candidate in the field, Wallace, 38, is a Duluth native who attended Hamline University and received his law degree from the University of Dayton School of Law. Returning to Duluth in 2013, he opened a private practice and works primarily in the area of criminal law, although his case load also includes family law, probate, and real estate. It’s that breadth of experience that Wallace said qualifies him for the position.
“The question gets asked why me,” he said. “The reason it’s me and maybe not some of my colleagues sitting next to me is because I have the necessary experience to do the job. The 2023 district court report indicates that about 80 percent of the cases that are heard by district court judges in a given year are cases that I’ve handled. I do the job every day, advising my clients as to what a court would find persuasive, what a jury will consider when deciding a case, and how a matter may be best resolved with the prosecutor with an opposing party.”
Echoing Reed, Wallace also talked about the impact judges have on individual lives when deciding cases.
“I can’t think of anything that’s more likely to be more impactful on a person’s life than who the judge is deciding the case or controversy that’s in front of them,” he said.
Editor’s Note: The photo of Gerald Wallace is courtesy of PACT-TV in Duluth.