Fond du Lac County District Attorney Debate

"I'm running based on my record" - Dan Kaminsky, Fond du Lac County District Attorney.

Here's the deal, Dan Kaminsky is the current Republican District Attorney of Fond du Lac County, and has shown numerous times that he's not exactly the most upstanding member of the criminal justice system. He is being challenged by Eric Toney, a young 28 year old attorney from Fond du Lac who is a solid Republican, but receiving heavy Democratic support.

Let's just say for a District Attorney's race, it's getting nasty. Mr. Kaminsky's disdain for Mr. Toney shines through in today's "debate" on the local public affairs show "Between the Lines with Greg Stensland" on  radio station AM-1170 WFDL. You can listen to the debate via podcast at this link: http://www.radioplusinfo.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5967879 .  (It's 25 minutes long) Furthermore, you can listen to the backlog of other shows, including a conversation with Tommy Thompson at this link: http://www.radioplusinfo.com/pages/13168029.php .

I don't claim to be a lawyer, or anyone with more than just a passing knowledge of the criminal justice and legal systems. That being said, I do know when something looks like it stinks politically. In that case, our current DA is like 4 week old fish.

The non-FDL area reader may wonder why the name Dan Kaminsky sounds familiar. That may be because this is the DA who let the CEO of Anthem Blue Cross off with a charge of "OWI Aircraft" for driving a car down Highway 41. (Never mind the fact that the defense attorney and Mr. Kaminsky are good friends). You can read about the story at this link: http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local/fox_cities/strange-fond-du-lac-county-owi-plea, but it really doesn't give the whole back story about the feud between the FDL Sheriffs office and DA over his handing of several different cases. (Let's just say some people may think a city of 46,000 is big, but they are naive)

Now, maybe that's not where you have heard the name Dan Kaminsky. Maybe it was over at the blog "Cognitive Dissidence" and his connection to Walkergate! You can (and certainly should) read about that at this link: http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2012/07/walkergate-is-there-lawyer-in-house.html.  Basically, one of the litany of attorneys to Tim Russell (magically) took a job with the FDL DA's office in June, providing a pretty large "conflict of interest" in that case, and showing exactly the caliber of people who we have in our DA's office at the lovely "Foot of the Lake."

The "Walkergate" angle to Mr. Kaminsky's tenure as DA doesn't get addressed in the debate, but the OWI Aircraft does, and Kaminsky doesn't seem too thrilled that people perceive it as bogus. He constantly points out the fact that Mr. Toney is a young lawyer and works at a law office who's owner is a big time Democrat, trying to paint him as a young punk who is nowhere near ready for the job. In short, Kaminsky is pissed he's being called out by a Republican who thinks our current DA is a dink.

Get ready folks, this thing is going to have repercussions down the line...