Iowa councilman attacked at bar, politics blamed

ATLANTIC, Iowa – A city councilman in Iowa said a man who attacked him at a bar claimed it was retaliation for comments he made about the man’s niece, a political opponent.

Kern Miller, a councilman in Atlantic, told KJAN-AM on Saturday that he and 49-year-old Ryan Dean Johnson were talking about football Friday before he was attacked. The councilman suffered a lacerated kidney and is recovering at a Nebraska hospital.

Miller said Johnson told him the attack was for what he said about Johnson’s niece, whom Miller defeated in a City Council race two years ago. Miller said he doesn’t recall what he may have said.

Johnson is charged with aggravated assault and free on $2,000 bond. A message left at a phone number listed for Johnson wasn’t returned Saturday.