Televised AG debate tough but controlled

Listen to this article

A strained cordiality kept a televised debate between Minnesota’s attorney general candidates from degenerating into a free-for-all on Sept. 21, even when the words sounded sulfurous.

A controlled tone prevailed even when GOP candidate Doug Wardlow signed onto an idea first floated by DFL primary candidate Tom Foley: that authorities should launch a criminal investigation into DFLer Keith Ellison’s domestic abuse allegations.

“I would join in that call,” said Wardlow, who added that the charges throw into question Ellison’s fitness to serve.

An ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan, has accused Ellison of abuse and claims that video of one violent incident exists. But she has never produced it.

Another woman, Amy Alexander, claimed 12 years ago that her alleged extramarital relationship with Ellison was abusive. That allegation surfaced publicly in a Wright County news sheet in October 2006, a month before Ellison’s election to Congress.

Ellison was awarded a restraining order against Alexander in June 2005 after telling the court that he was being extorted; he denied ever dating her. Alexander’s own order for protection was denied by Hennepin County Judge Robert Lynn, who prohibited Alexander from filing further complaints against him.

The allegations are a weight on the race. A recent KSTP-TV poll showed that 40 percent of respondents see the domestic abuse accusations as a factor in their vote. Another 39 percent said the allegations were not.

Monahan has kept up the pressure. Last week, she posted to Twitter a medical record from Nov. 28, 2017. In it, she reported symptoms associated with anemia and said she been in a “stressful environment for years.”

She told clinicians that Ellison abused her but was afraid to name him publicly for fear of retribution. She also told them their relationship was over and that she was improving through therapy and relaxation.

“She did not have any physical injuries that required an examination in the past,” the medical record states.

During Friday’s debate on the TPT-TV program “Almanac,” Ellison said the medical report was created a year after their breakup, when Monahan “was essentially putting together the allegation” that went public days before the Aug. 14 primary.

Asked why he refused a publicized invitation to speak with Monahan with an investigator present, Ellison said he wants to move on.

“I don’t want to be in the relationship and therefore I left the relationship,” Ellison said. “So to get back in touch with her again is not something I am interested in doing.”

When asked, Ellison could not be sure no further allegations would surface.

“Look, in this political environment I don’t know what somebody might cook up,” he said. “But I can tell you that there is absolutely nobody that I am aware of who is threatening or suggesting or who has ever made a prior accusation.”

That prompted a retort from Wardlow: “I think two credible, strong accusations of domestic abuse is enough.”

“There is not two,” Ellison said. “There is none. Zero.”

Policy differences

That discussion took up just a few minutes of a roughly 35-minute debate. The panel of candidates, which included Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis candidate Noah Johnson, also burrowed into policy and personal differences.

Wardlow hammered on a key theme — that he will “stand up for the rule of law.” That includes matters of religious freedom, he said.

Wardlow, a former attorney for the Christian conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, tried several high-profile court cases for the group. One was a 2016 Ohio case in which Wardlow defended a school district that hoped to overturn President Barack Obama’s rule granting free bathroom access to transgender students. Wardlow lost the case when a judge ordered a biologically male student who identifies as female to be treated “like the girl she is.”

TPT played a video clip from a March 2017 Anoka-Hennepin School Board meeting in which Wardlow, still representing the alliance, spoke against a similar local policy.

“I urge the district to act in accord with the simple reality that there are boys and there are girls, and that boys and girls are fundamentally different in ways that really do matter,” Wardlow says in the clip, which the Ellison campaign has run on its website.

“Minnesotans have to make a decision,” Ellison said. “Do they want an attorney general that is insensitive to LGBTQ people? Or do they want one that believes that all Minnesotans are equal and should be respected?”

Wardlow said the clip was out of context because he was only representing a client’s interests. It is “patently false” that he is insensitive to anyone, he said.

Regardless, personal views are unimportant, Wardlow indicated. “As attorney general, my views on those things are irrelevant because I am going to stand up for the rights of every single Minnesotan,” he said.

Ellison called a question about his own Muslim faith from moderator Eric Eskola “desperately unfair.”

“The fact is that my faith is a personal matter,” he said. “I will faithfully execute the laws of the state of Minnesota and the federal government where they apply.”

‘Cop killers’ and consumers

Like Wardlow’s, Ellison’s legal record also was challenged. Wardlow noted that, as an attorney, Ellison has represented accused “cop killers” and praised others, including political radicals Assata Shakur and Sara Jane Olson.

Ellison said such defenses are what the U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment is all about. He said his public defense of Olson came before she pleaded guilty to possession of explosives in 2001. “The idea that you would criticize somebody for standing up for the constitutional rights of others, I guess I don’t agree with that,” Ellison said

Several times, Ellison repeated that he would leverage the office to “help people afford their lives.” That includes defending Obamacare’s mandated coverage for pre-existing conditions, he said.

Wardlow agreed that Minnesotans’ access to health care must be protected, but he insisted that Ellison would cross the line into legislative politics, which falls outside the office’s purview.

“We need to investigate and prosecute illegal practices that may be occurring between the insurers and providers,” Wardlow said. “There are a number of things that I am going to do to lower health care costs. But they are not legislative.”

The candidates differed in how they would approach the job. The AG’s duties include legally advising state agencies, representing Minnesota in civil trials and felony appeals and assisting local prosecutors — when called upon — in difficult criminal cases.

Wardlow reiterated a campaign pledge to staff up the office’s criminal division to levels not seen since Skip Humphrey’s 1990s tenure, by reallocating resources. He said he would be willing to assist counties in police shooting cases, he said, but only when asked.

“We’ll not take [that function] away from them,” Wardlow said. “But we can provide assistance to county attorneys and we can give them guidance.”

Ellison said the office ought to be more proactive in cases to help communities regain trust in the police.

“I think that the attorney general should offer leadership here,” Ellison said. “I mean, it’s important that you have a transparent, expeditious, fair investigation.”

Wardlow repeatedly accused Ellison of planning to “politicize” the AG’s office by signing onto Democratic state AG’s lawsuits and wage war against President Donald Trump on issues like immigration, consumer protection and health care.

Ellison scoffed at the critique. “This idea that the attorney general doesn’t do politics is ridiculous—they’re voting for us,” Ellison said. “We’re talking to voters every single day. That’s politics.”

Minnesota Lawyer has invited the Wardlow and Ellison campaigns to join in a debate, sponsored by this newspaper, at a time and location yet to be determined. Wardlow has agreed to take part. The Ellison campaign has not yet committed.