Clerks are warned the moment they start the job they are not to engage in partisan or political discourse. Wardlow's blog was anonymous; the writer called himself “Marius."
Archived versions of the “About Me” section reveal that “Marius” “holds a degree in government and political theory from Georgetown University and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center,” as Wardlow did, and that he “resides in St. Paul.”
The banner, which sports an American flag, some ruins, and some pointy font, was hosted at lynnwardlow.com/rostrabanner.jpg. Lynn Wardlow is the name of Doug Wardlow’s father, who served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009.
After that, City Pages catalogs a sampling of political posts from that blog, with lynnwardlow.com as source of that site's header. Read about it there. Not only is a sampling stated, links are given.
Sorensen, at BluestemPrairie actually broke the story two days before City Pages posted. Since that, the story, properly, has grown legs.
The Intercept has cataloged and linked as City Paeges did, to Internet Archive pages, and has noted:
Nowhere in the blog does it explicitly say that the author is Wardlow, but City Pages notes that there is circumstantial evidence that he was indeed the author. The blog’s “about me” statement says that they hold a degree in government and political theory from Georgetown and a J.D. from its law school — just as Wardlow does. The contact email listed is “dwardlow@mac.com.” The American flag banner on the webpage was hosted at “lynnwardlow.com/rostrabanner.jpg” — Lynn Wardlow is Doug’s father.
But the strongest evidence is a blog post from 2004, which was not archived on the Wayback Machine but was saved by a source before the blog was taken down, and provided to The Intercept. The post gives away the identity of the author by referencing Wardlow’s brother, Capt. Jason Wardlow: [see Intercept item, for screen capture of that post]
RawStory, in part, posts:
Among other things, the author decried a Supreme Court ruling that found the death penalty should not be applied to crimes committed by minors. They also appear to be strongly biased towards the administration of President George W. Bush, celebrating the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry during the 2004 campaign.
They also wondered if encouraging high voter turn out was a good thing. “Their goal is generally to increase turnout and make voting easier,” they wrote. “
Laudable goals? Maybe not. Higher turnout is not necessarily a virtue if it is sparked not by voter education and real civic concern on the part of those casting ballots, but rather by the goading of voter turnout advocates combined with easy access to balloting,” they wrote. “If people are too lazy to show up at the polls over the course of twelve hours, it says something about the intensity of their support for their chosen candidate.”
As a clerk for the Minnesota Supreme Court, Wardlow was prohibited from promoting partisan positions, experts told the Intercept.
“The rules of judicial conduct, which applied then and which include clerks, would have prohibited this type of partisan activity,” David Schultz, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and ethics expert, told the Intercept. “In addition, the Rules of Professional Conduct would have also prohibited it.”
MORE: In addition to the City Pages and Intercept links to The Rostra posts which are clearly of a Republican political nature, there is this screen capture from the published archive version of a Rosta post on Internet Archive, from the Rosta site as of Feb. 10,2005:
 |
| click the image for author bio detail |
Opening that post, bio facts: Dad Retired Marine Reserve Lt. Col., brother a Cobra pilot; "recently returned from Iraq," I went to law school, sidebar saying Georgetown.
Doug Wardlow's father, Lynn, has a Wikipedia page noting:
He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1995 at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
This screen capture from lynnwardlow.com [a site now scrubbed from the web] is from Internet Archive captured there, July 27,2004:
Viewing the pagesource code for that archived Rosta item corresponding to the screen capture above, besides the blog banner being from lynnwardlow.com, two other items show up in the code, three altogether at lines 458, 896 and 916, respectively:
img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20050210195651im_/http://www.lynnwardlow.com/rostrabanner.jpg"
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050210195651/http://www.blogsforbush.com/" ...img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20050210195651im_/http://www.lynnwardlow.com/bush.gif" border="0" alt="Blogs for Bush"
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050210195651/http://www.georgewbush.com/" ...img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20050210195651im_/http://www.lynnwardlow.com/gwbanner.jpg"
Only the first image, the blog banner remains in archive. From the other two image names the politics of each is evident.
Yes, it is cumulative evidence, but in toto it also pins the
BOTTOM LINE: This is an ethics question, and one expects an Attorney General to have at all times adhered to clear norms of legal ethics. It is not expecting much. However it is expecting a lot, when Doug Wardlow's past actions are under scrutiny. The judge Wardlow clerked for doubtlessly expected Wardlow to follow ethical norms, indeed, likely trusted that Wardlow would. A trust which was breached.
I trust Kieth Ellison, even if he grabbed a lady by the ankle and knocked off a shoe. Something which has never been proven. His policies and his dedication to them are absolutely trustworthy. Wardlow lied about being non-partisan and without a litmus test for attorneys he'd hire or fire. From the day he won the GOP AG primary onward, he belied that assertion of non-partisanship. This is not about an incident outside of the run for office; it goes to the heart of what Wardlow is promising within his campaigning, one thing to the public, the opposite to Republicans at GOP love-in sessions, and that breach of public trustworthiness is far more severe a breach than an alleged incident of justified anger in a dying relationship Ellison was ending while generously still allowing Monahan to stay longer in his home while she looked for other housing. He cut slack, and got exceptional vengeance in return, but that is collateral to the primary fact: Kieth Ellison has never lied about his priorities once in office as AG, which were his identical priorities during his Congressional service, and which are priorities which would have won the Presidency had Bernie been the Democratic Party presidential candidate in 2016. How it is, like it or love it. Wardlow has hidden and downplayed his extremism and even lies about non-partisanship in seeking votes.
____________UPDATE____________
In fairness to Wardlow on the ethical question, the Intercept item notes it is nuanced and not black and white, but that there is a spirit to not acting to reflect wrongly on the impartiality of the courts:
Another University of Minnesota legal expert, Carol Chomsky, offered a more nuanced answer, saying that it depends on when and where Wardlow would have written the blog posts.
“I believe that the current policy of the state court, adopted in 2006, states that ‘[a]ll of an employee’s activities and actions, both on and off the job, have the potential to reflect upon the impartiality and integrity of the Judicial Branch,’ but the specifics of the rule don’t expressly forbid all political activity,” she wrote in an email to The Intercept. “The rule forbids engaging in political activity during scheduled work hours, on court property, or when using government vehicles or equipment, and also prohibits using public facilities or an official employment title even during non work-hours. The ethical rules in federal court are more expansive, indicating that judicial employees should ‘refrain from partisan political activity’ without reference to whether the activity is during or outside of work hours. I think engaging in partisan activity of the sort you’ve referred to is contrary to the spirit of the state rule because it would reflect on the sense of impartiality of the Judicial Branch, but may not have violated the explicit provisions of the rule, depending on when and how the work was done.”
__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
When it comes to having an idea vs ducking a question, a life and death question, guess what.
How about selling this brand:
In a campaign piece aimed at supporters and volunteers, Wardlow asked them to rank the actions they want him to take if elected. One of those is “Defend President Trump’s agenda in court.” Others are to “prosecute illegal trafficking in fetal body parts” and “investigate and prosecute illegal voting.”
Wardlow said that campaign literature was aimed at “getting the base fired up… we were soliciting input.” He first said it was asking for suggestions and didn’t say he would do any of those things. But after being read the words on the card “Doug Wardlow will institute these duties when he is your MN Attorney General,” he said he wouldn’t, in fact, take all of those actions.
“I can tell you this, I’m not going to use — and I’ve said this consistently — I’m not going to be doing anything political with the attorney general’s office,” he said.
The man is a joke.