Retired Viking runs again, this time for office in Eagan

Joey Browner, one of the great Vikings defensive stars of all time, is going on offense next week against the suburb of Eagan.

The retired safety wants his name on the ballot for this fall's city council election, and he will ask a judge to order it inserted despite the objections of city officials, who say he missed the deadline. If that doesn't fly, he plans to run a write-in campaign.

"My website is up," he said Friday, "and I will be out campaigning and letting people see me out in the community at different events."

Meg Tilley, one of the incumbents seeking reelection, said she doesn't find his civic résumé very impressive.

"He's only lived in Eagan for about a year," she said. "Usually people who run for this office have lived here for a number of years. I don't know the gentleman and don't know if I've ever seen him. He certainly hasn't been at any council meetings."

Browner wouldn't be the first Vikings great in Dakota County politics. Paul Krause, another ex-safety, represents Lakeville on the county board.

Browner, a Viking for most of the '80s, now works in community outreach for the Metropolitan Council.

His failure to appear on the ballot resulted from a misunderstanding, he said. When the idea occurred to him to seek a seat on the Eagan council, he said, he contacted the city and was told there would be no primary election because nobody was challenging the two incumbents. He concluded that the filing deadline was September, which applies to elections where no primary is being held. In reality, he needed to file by July, the city says.

Joan Olin, city administrator for Lilydale and Mendota and a friend of Browner's, said he was victimized by incomplete information and confusing instructions.

"Dakota County is already printing ballots," she said, "but I assume if the courts were to rule in his favor, they would have to reprint the ones for Eagan."

Browner, who is black, said he would bring diversity and a fiscal conservatism to a council now short on both. For instance, he said, the council has approved an increase in the tax levy greater than the increase in the cost of living.

Tilley said the council is diverse in its own way. "There's no one of color, but we have age diversity, men and women, religious diversity." And it is fiscally conservative, she said. "We run a tight ship. We're cutting back on things, to the point where we are down to the bare bones. We have one of the lowest-taxed communities in the state."