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I am a candidate for re-election as Attorney General.
It is an incredible honor to represent our fellow Minnesotans in this office. I appreciate the support of the many people who have encouraged me to run for Governor. I signed up with my fellow Minnesotans for a four-year term as Attorney General. While I am complimented that recent polls show me in a leadership position if I were to run for Governor, the work of the Attorney General’s Office is at a critical juncture for the next two months. I must focus all my energy and attention on that work.
Representing our fellow Minnesotans has provided me with a profound sense of achievement.
We were the first attorney general’s office in the country to win a verdict of fraud against a for-profit college for ripping off students with overblown promises to sell expensive degrees. HBO’s Vice, a national program, recognized our win for students.
We are the only office in the country to ban from our state a Wall Street company—Accretive Health—for its harassment of patients in hospital emergency rooms. National Public Radio, the New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC highlighted our successful battle in this hard-fought litigation, and HealthLeaders magazine recognized me as one of the top 20 Americans making a difference in health care.
We are the only office in the country to stop the nation’s largest consumer arbitration company—the National Arbitration Forum—–from running a rigged arbitration system in which it unfairly adjudicated millions of consumer credit cases. Our year-long investigation spanned all 50 states. The national publication Lawyers USA recognized our accomplishment when it named me one of the top 10 attorneys in America in 2009, saying: “She toppled the dominant player in debt arbitration in the country and changed the face of consumer credit card arbitration overnight.”
We are the only office in the country that negotiated and maintained a settlement with all Minnesota hospitals to charge uninsured patients no more than insurance companies for the same treatment.
We were the only attorney general’s office in the country to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in refund offers for senior citizens who were sold inappropriate investments by insurance companies. NBC’s national program Dateline heralded our win for seniors. [...]
The release continues, but the message already is clear. Abuses were noticed. Abuses were contested. Relief for citizens resulted.
It is a substantial record. AG is less a subject of media attention, so such a list is helpful when caucusing and voting. Anyone believing a Republican in that office would have undertaken even one of those contests lives a sheltered life in fantasy land.
Keeping the DFL in that office only makes sense.