Over the weekend, the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne included Minneapolis City Council President Barbara Johnson in a column on how women in elective office view Sen. Hillary Clinton’s current travails. The nationally syndicated column included Johnson’s quotes alongside those from three U.S. representatives and the president of the Massachusetts Senate, and references to a couple of governors and U.S. senators, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Elevated company, even for a council president in a weak-mayor town? (She’s the only one not hotlinked at washingtonpost.com.)

The piece also mentions that among those preceding Johnson in the president’s seat was her mother, Alice Rainville. Dionne quotes Johnson as seeing in Clinton’s treatment more ageism than sexism. Johnson didn’t have to worry about either in her last election: The council president, who’s occasionally said to harbor other ambitions, ran unopposed.