Attorney general candidates divided on office's role in national debates

One of the state’s most competitive political races this year is not just to fill a post open for the first time in more than a decade, but also to define the role of Minnesota’s attorney general at a time when the people who hold that office around the country have become key players in the nation’s most contentious political fights.

Should the state’s chief legal officer be a bulwark against policies emanating from Washington, or more narrowly focused on protecting consumers and advising state agencies? Many Democratic attorneys general are fighting President Donald Trump’s agenda in the courts, mimicking Republican counterparts who used their offices to resist President Barack Obama’s initiatives. But those in the packed field of Minnesota candidates disagree on how much attention the “people’s lawyer” should pay the Trump administration.

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Ellison is the best-known candidate in a field of five running in the Aug. 14 DFL primary. Several of his Democratic rivals have put more emphasis on Minnesota issues. Doug Wardlow, the Republican-endorsed candidate and front-runner in the GOP primary, said he would focus on “putting Minnesota first, and not the national issues.”

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The election comes amid a national shift in how attorneys general use the office. The number of joint attorneys general lawsuits to block environmental policies started to increase during George W. Bush’s presidency, according to Marquette University political science Prof. Paul Nolette, who has been tracking the trend for more than a decade.

“They began to see the power, I think, of banding together to challenge federal policy that they didn’t like,” Nolette said, and that escalated when activist Republican attorneys general were elected in 2014. “It was really after that election that Republican AGs turned to a strategy of suing Obama and the administration on just about everything.”

Then Trump took office, and Democratic attorneys general started filing suits against his administration on everything from the family separation policy to different iterations of the Muslim travel ban to his repeal of an Affordable Care Act mandate that employers cover birth control.

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All five DFL candidates share similar priorities when it comes to protecting residents and the environment from bad corporate actors, but they diverge on how much attention they devote to national issues on the campaign trail.

Minneapolis attorney Matt Pelikan, the DFL-endorsed candidate, made fighting Trump a key piece of his platform. Both he and Ellison emphasized that the office’s approximately 130 attorneys can take on individual, local issues while also wading into national fights. Competitors Mike Rothman, a former state commerce commissioner, and state Rep. Debra Hilstrom said when Trump’s policies hurt Minnesotans they would join other states in filing injunctions. But the candidates have talked more about Minnesota matters.

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Former Ramsey County Attorney Tom Foley, another DFL candidate, said he is focused on consumer protections for seniors, safe schools and the environment. He also wants to protect Minnesotans from “disastrous national policies,” but said that would be a small part of the job.

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http://www.startribune.com/attorney-general-candidates-divided-on-office-s-role-in-national-debates/489428441/