More than a year ago, during the early days of the Minneapolis City Council campaign, I chanced upon Andy Luger at the 13th Ward DFL convention. He handed me his card and announced he was running for Hennepin County Attorney. He’s been running hard ever since, and despite garnering a first-ballot DFL endorsement in June, the Edina attorney is taking nothing for granted in his campaign against former Hennepin County Attorney  Mike Freeman.Freeman, the son of former governor and U.S. secretary of agriculture Orville Freeman, came into the race late and barely contested the endorsement, knowing that his name recognition among longtime DFLers would give him a chance in November (he and Luger are the only two candidates in the non-partisan race).

When I sat down with Luger earlier this week and asked him about Freeman’s challenge and how he was distinguishing himself from a guy with a statewide profile, he noted that Freeman’s “been a politician half of his life