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Friday, May 20, 2022

Minnesota Republican AG wannabes. What to make of their going into a primary? One the devil we know, the other, "Who 'dat?"

 There can be such a thing as a fencing match where each contestant looks amateur.

That said - Recently endorsed GOP candidate for the AG office, Jim Schultz, whoever he is besides a newcomer, hits the ground sniping. 

 https://jimformnag.com/  - this:

 

click the image to enlarge to read

  Trashing Doug Wardlow, first thing after a feeble predictable issues banner. 

Then - https://www.facebook.com/JimForMN/  - 

 


 Same trash talk.

Wardlow has the right to run in the GOP primary as a GOP candidate, past and present. He currently says he will -

Political newcomer Jim Schultz on Friday, May 13, won the Minnesota GOP endorsement at the party's state convention in Rochester. Typically, Minnesota Republican candidates honor their party’s endorsement and do not run in the August primary election.

Wardlow, who is general counsel for Mike Lindell’s MyPillow company, had pledged to step aside if he did not get the endorsement, but in his statement claimed he had been denied the nomination by political insiders and “Republicans in name only.”

“When I got into this race 15 months ago I knew we would face opposition from the swamp within our own party,” Wardlow said in the video. “Unfortunately at our Republican state convention on Friday the RINO swamp got its way and the people lost out.”

 Schultz was able to gain an edge over Wardlow after receiving the support of Tad Jude, who dropped out of the race after failing to gain a commanding number of delegates in early voting at the convention. Wardlow in his video characterized this as unfair as he had gained a lead in the initial rounds of voting.

Schultz shot back at Wardlow’s “swamp” comments in a Tuesday statement.

"Through a hard-fought campaign, I always stated that I respect Doug Wardlow. With his announcement, Doug has lost my respect and that of the hundreds of thousands of Republican Party faithful who took him at his word,” Schultz said. "There is nothing more representative of the establishment swamp than a career politician who fails to honor his promises.”

[italics added] Schultz well knows there were no "hundreds of thousands" at the inner party shindig. You need to get into voter sentiment to reach such a number. Which Wardlow is doing.

(Which one gets choice of weapons?) One has to speculate whether Schultz knew Wardlow intended a run, but posted a consistent snotty web put-down anyway. (That's the guess here, consistent with the final above quoted paragraph.) 

Wardlow, as quoted, has some fight in him, hence, it will be interesting to see each doing product differentiation. 

Republican voters, not party insiders, will be able to see vigorous campaigning to judge which of the two they like best. It is why a primary exists.

Party insiders ganged up against Wardlow because he failed to beat Ellison even with all the mud-slinging Wardlow/Parker did last cycle. That was their decision, go with the untested man. Voters are a different audience and may react differently

Whichever advances via the primary will have to face Ellison. Ellison is an appealing candidate with a decades-long history of local city service, multi-term Congressional service, progressive appeal, rooted neighborhood pupularity and activism, and successful time as AG since he took office.

..............................

In fairness to the new candidate, Crabgrass opinion of Wardlow is dismissive, but that is not from somebody in Wardlow's party slinging early, snotty mud. It is an opinion from the progressive side of the regular DFL moderates, a long-standing and consistent opinion. 

Hopefully once the two are engaged in the primary both will take the high road so that each can hone in on where they depart on issues. But each also needs to show some fire in the belly, looking passionate about issue stands, and not merely calculating to score debating points or a name-calling advantage.

Whether Wardlow and Parker again join forces, in the primary where the old Karen Monahan pile of crap will be entirely irrelevant, is another wait-and-see dimension.

BOTTOM LINE: it will be informative to see how Schultz distinguishes himself as different from Wardlow. Schultz clearly looks to be the brighter of the two. How that plays with Republican voters will be interesting to see.

 ____________UPDATE__________

Wardlow had Bob Kroll in his pocket last time, or vice versa.

It looks as if the newbie went to smoothly undercut that. 

Bio stuff here:

Schultz, who grew up in the small town of South Haven, Minnesota, practices law with a Minnesota company, specializing in business, regulatory, and compliance law. He previously worked at Dorsey & Whitney LLP in Minneapolis. He currently serves on the board of The Front Line Foundation, a nonprofit supporting police and other first responders. This is his first run for elected office.

Schultz announced his campaign in a video emphasizing his focus on public safety, saying Minnesotans deserve communities where our kids can grow up safe, where the rule of law is respected, and an Attorney General who puts victims first and criminals in jail.

“For 50 years, Democrats have owned the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, and what’s it got us?” Schultz asks in the video. “I’m Jim Schultz and as a fifth-generation Minnesotan, I’m taking a stand. I’m not a politician, I’ve never run for office. I’m a father, a husband, and a conservative who, like you, is fed up.”

So, a good connivance.  You are a corporate practices lawyer, no criminal prosecution or defense work to tout; so suck up to a cop organization and cut Wardlow off at the knees. And run bellowing outsider for law and order.

Ignore that Ellison requested the legislature to allocate the money for him to put a bigger footprint into criminal AG assistance to small county attorneys with complex litigation or deep pocket criminals involved - and it was the Republicans who cut Ellison off at the knees on the effort to precisely expand AG criminal law work.

Simply put: Ellison asked for the budget to be "an Attorney General who puts victims first and criminals in jail" and, whatever the politics, Ellison got a silent unhelpful stonewall from the GOP legislative players. Needing funds - a pay to play situation - Ellison got an unexplained shunning by Republicans holding the purse.

They don't want you to hear that part of truth. That they fucked Ellison over to be able to go into November keening over law and order necessities. And saying Ellison has no such priorities; that being a total lie. Truth will out.

Back to Wardlow/Schultz -

Wardlow is an insider Republcan, rejected. The politics of that might come to the surface in the primary, some cause or conspiracy; or the insiders simply on Friday the 13th, full moon, whatever, decided Wardlow is a loser, so try a new flavor. 

That is also possible.

A neat dividing line - Schultz is Catholic, Tad Jude too, both U. St. Thomas alums, birds of a feather hanging together with Jude throwing his weight to Schultz after balloting showed Jude had no chance; Wardlow ending up undercut, whining.

Wardlow has a rabid evangelical stripe to his history, while seeing two Catholics seemingly conniving, so is a wedge being driven between two Roe v. Wade hater camps? [update - this might be wrong - Wardlow went to Georgetown, undergrad and law school, grad. cum laude - so he might be catholic and while extreme in views, no dummy]

At a guess they have their primary, then join hands boosting the winner while calling Ellison evil incarnate, singing Kumbaya, with each carrying a sign, "I never met an embryo I didn't like."

____________FURTHER UPDATE__________

It is hard to find voluntary statements online about how many trials Schultz has done as lead attorney, ditto for Wardlow. Experience matters! Size of the nut of money at risk in such trials matters too. There's little stuff. There's the Epstein's of the world getting off with a wrist slap, first time, by Acosta as U.S. Attorney who made it to the Trump Cabinet. There is much in the experience arena where a laser sharp focus might be helpful to Republican voter decision making.

Hopefully each will confront the other during the primary to expose either's lack of actual, meaningful litigation and/or administrative experience. Full inquiry into a spectrum of work and issues. 

Pop the popcorn.

___________FURTHER UPDATE___________

Linkedin info for Schultz -

Experience

Education

[Not a Tea Party resume] 

Readers are invited to research the two latest employments. The firms, what they do. Shifting money, not policing the streets nor putting dangerous criminals behind bars. A business lawyer? Not a litigator??

Schultz is not touting any litigation experience, nor administrative work managing a large staff. Nor appellate practice. Smart, but where's the experience one expects of an AG?

Schultz and Wardlow should lock horns in the primary over experience.

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