Mollie Tibbetts murder case in Iowa gets pulled into Minnesota Senate race

Minnesota state Sen. Karin Housley on Wednesday seized on the killing of a young Iowa college student — and the reported confession of an immigrant with disputed legal status — to take the fight on the immigration issue to her Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith.

Housley, a Republican from the Stillwater area, released a statement calling the murder a “preventable tragedy.” She charged that Smith and “liberal Democrats … are more concerned about protecting criminal aliens than protecting innocent lives like Mollie Tibbetts.”

Smith did not directly address Housley’s attack: “This is an awful tragedy and my heart breaks for Mollie’s family. I can imagine nothing worse than losing a child. The individual responsible for this heinous crime must be brought to justice and punished,” Smith said in a statement to the Star Tribune.

http://www.startribune.com/mollie-tibbetts-murder-becomes-fodder-in-minnesota-senate-race/491493401/