For more than 15 years, clean-cut, square-jawed Tom Heffelfinger was the embodiment of a tough Republican prosecutor. Named U.S. attorney for Minnesota in 1991, he won a series of high-profile white-collar-crime and gun and explosives cases. By the time Heffelfinger resigned last year, his office had collected a string of awards and commendations from the Justice Department.

So it came as a surprise - and something of a mystery - when he turned up on the list of U.S. attorneys who had been targeted for firing.

Part of the reason, government documents and other evidence suggest, is that he tried to protect voting rights for American Indians.

At a time when GOP activists wanted U.S. attorneys to concentrate on pursuing voter-fraud cases, Heffelfinger's office was expressing deep concern about a state directive that could have the effect of discouraging Indians in Minnesota from casting ballots.

Citing requirements in a new state law intended to prevent voter fraud, Republican Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer directed that tribal ID cards could not be used for voter identification by American Indians living outside reservations. Heffelfinger and his staff feared that the ruling could result in discrimination against Indian voters. Many do not have drivers' licenses or forms of identification other than the tribes' picture IDs.

Kiffmeyer said she was only following the requirements of the law.

Indian vote seen as favoring Democrats

The issue was politically sensitive because the size of the Indian vote can be pivotal in close Minnesota elections. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area has one of the largest urban American Indian populations in the United States. Its members turn out in relatively large numbers and predominantly identify with Democrats.

Heffelfinger resigned last year for personal reasons and says he had no idea he was being targeted for possible firing. But his stance fits a pattern that has emerged in the cases of several U.S. attorneys fired last year in states where Republicans wanted more vigorous efforts to legally challenge questionable voters.

Politics has always played a role at Justice and other Cabinet-level departments. But, critics say, Bush administration strategists went beyond most of their predecessors - Democratic or Republican - in seeking ways to convert control of the federal government into advantages on election day.

The Heffelfinger episode has contributed to a backlash among some Minnesota Republicans. Sen. Norm Coleman, the state's senior senator and a Bush loyalist in the past, has called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign - largely as a result of the U.S. attorney firings and the revelations about Heffelfinger.

A hint at why Heffelfinger's name was added to the termination lists that Justice Department officials and Bush political strategists put together emerged when Monica Goodling, the department's former White House liaison, testified last week before the House Judiciary Committee about the firings.

Goodling said she had heard Heffelfinger criticized for "spending an excessive amount of time" on American Indian issues.

Her comment caused bewilderment and anger among the former U.S. attorney's supporters in Minnesota. Heffelfinger himself said it was "shameful" if the time he spent on the problems of American Indians had landed him in trouble with his superiors in Washington.

But newly obtained documents and interviews with government officials suggest that what displeased some of his superiors and GOP politicians was narrower and more politically charged - his actions on Indian voting.

Single page