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Wednesday, June 01, 2022

My Pillow lawyer Doug Wardlow makes it official - he will challenge the endorsed hedge fund - private equity lawyer the Republican Party in Minnesota endorsed for its Attorney General candidate. Both will be on the ballot in the upcoming Republican primary.

[UPDATE: Some Wardlow Facebook images failed to upload properly. They are not super relevant, and are removed from the post without loss]

 

Republican attorney general candidate Doug Wardlow, left, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell work the crowd at the Minnesota GOP state convention in Rochester, Minn. on Friday, May 13, 2022. Wardlow is general counsel for MyPillow, while Lindell has risen to national prominence for perpetuating the baseless claim that Trump won the 2020 election.
image from SFGate

 

 SFGate reporting:

Wardlow, who was the party’s nominee in 2018, is general counsel at MyPillow and an ally of its founder, Mike Lindell, a leading proponent of false accusations that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump.

In a video posted on social media, Wardlow said he's fighting what he called the “swamp” in the Minnesota GOP. He described it as a “fear-driven” Republican-in-name-only establishment and “elites who care more about staying in power than they care about the people.”

The executive director of the Republican Party of Minnesota, Mike Lonergan, criticized Wardlow's decision to continue his campaign, saying his public commitment to abide by the party's endorsement was an "empty promise."

[...] Former legislator Dennis Smith, who skipped the convention, had already said he planned to run in the Aug. 9 primary.

Wardlow called both Schultz and Smith “creatures of the swamp" who can't beat Ellison in November.

[italics added] Pillow, swamp,swamp, and may the best man win. 

________UPDATE________

Besides SFGate in another state noting the Wardlow primary contest, Newsweek, a nationwide magazine published online:

 Wardlow, a 42-year-old born in Eagan, Minnesota, graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2004. He spent nearly half of his law career working at the private firm Parker Rosen LLC and was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2010. However, he lost his 2012 reelection bid to Democrat Laurie Halverson.

Before launching his 2018 campaign to become Minnesota's attorney general, Wardlow also worked for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal group that largely opposes LGBTQ rights.

During Wardlow's 2018 campaign, Ellison's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party unearthed a 2013 audio recording of Wardlow speaking against same-sex marriage. In the recording, Wardlow accused the "radical left" of seeking to "redefine the marriage and undermine the family," adding, "You cannot have liberty with marriage redefined to include homosexual marriage."

Also during his 2018 run, Wardlow sent out mailers calling Ellison "one of the most dangerous men in America" and saying Ellison "pals around with radical Islamic groups and defends known terrorists." Ellison became the nation's first Muslim congressman in 2006.

Four clergy members from four different religious faiths criticized Wadlow's mailer as Islamophobic, according to KARE, although Wardlow disagreed.

In the video announcing his most recent run for attorney general, Wardlow criticized Ellison for endorsing the state's Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, a fellow Muslim who is also a supporter of the "defund the police" movement.

Ellison told a HuffPost reporter last June that he doesn't support the movement, even though he does support police reform. In a July 2020 interview with Progressive.org, Ellison said he thinks people mischaracterize the "defund the police" slogan in order to discredit police reformers and social justice activists. He has said there's a need for government officials to understand how to maintain peace without abusing human rights.

"I think what [the police reform movement is] saying is, 'Do you really need four guys with guns to investigate a fake $20 bill? Is that what we need?'" Ellison said, referring to the four police officers who killed Black Minneapolis resident George Floyd.

Wardlow's video also accuses Ellison of presiding over a rise of crime throughout the state.

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) says that state attorney generals operate as the state's legal representative in court—predominantly handling environmental, civil and only "serious statewide criminal prosecutions," rather than lowering crime rates statewide, a role which often falls to legislators and police officials.

Newsweek reached out to Wardlow's campaign for comment.

Following Wardlow's announcement, Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Ken Martin released a statement calling Wardlow "a right-wing extremist who will do anything for political power," who has "only gotten more extreme and more dangerous," according to the Star Tribune.

Martin also criticized Wardlow's work for Lindell, saying "[he] provides legal advice to a man who wants to use the United States military to stage a coup and forcefully overturn a free and fair election."

Lindell is currently facing a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over his baseless claims that the company's voting machines switched votes from former President Donald Trump to then-candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential elections.

In January 2021, Lindell expressed hope that Trump would instruct the military to help him stay in office before Biden's inauguration.

 

IN CLOSING - Wardlow is indeed associating himself with Lindell, and is employed by Lindell's bedding business. Presumably they hold no major differences in outlook which would imperil Wardlow's ongoing relationship and status with Lindell and his adventures.

Also, Wardlow did indeed work in the past for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), "a Christian legal group that largely opposes LGBTQ rights;" a matter noted in a Crabgrass sidebar item from during the 2018 AG election -

He unleashed an ADF salvo, earning his ADF paycheck. Read about it, here, here and here. Outlawyered on appeal, Wardlow now apparently has no ADF paycheck. Others for ADF are pressing on. ADF appears to be a win-or-go-home team. James Dobson's team, so walk the line. Whatever you think you want, trust me, you do not want James Dobson anywhere near our attorney general office.

That sentiment today stands largely unchanged. 

________FURTHER UPDATE________

While a word search of those three linked items does not show "Wardlow" in either of the three, there is detail reported earlier (Oct. 2018) by the Grand Forks Herald -

Wardlow’s public record on gay rights As the attorney general campaign has worn on, Wardlow has frequently declined to discuss his stances on gay rights.

He has said gay marriage is “the law of the land.” During a recent debate with Ellison, he said that he believes gays should enjoy equal protection under the law. When asked about his past advocacy against issues favored by the LGBT community, he has frequently demurred, saying they’re legislative matters outside the purview of the attorney general’s office.

But his public record of opposing a number of gay-rights issues, like same-sex marriage and recognition of transgender people, is clear.

In 2004 and 2005, Wardlow appears to have authored a conservative blog while he clerked at the Minnesota Supreme Court.

In it, he criticized gay marriage, summarizing his takeaway from the 2004 election thus: “Americans have spoken decisively: We do not want the government to secularize our society, we stand together in the common belief that marriage should be reserved for the union of one man and one woman.”

Wardlow was elected to the state House in 2010. During his tenure, he supported a Republican-led effort to place on the ballot an amendment to the state Constitution that would have defined marriage as exclusively between a man and woman.

The amendment was voted down by a majority of voters in the 2012 election. The next year, the DFL-controlled Legislature, with Gov. Mark Dayton’s signature, legalized gay marriage.

Shortly after the House voted in favor of the provision, Wardlow tweeted: “MN House votes to allow same-sex marriage, undermine building blocks of a free society, upend rule of law, jeopardize ordered liberty.” Wardlow appears to have deleted that tweet earlier this month as part of a purging of his social media accounts.

Alliance Defending Freedom In 2014, Wardlow began serving as legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based Christian group that has fought expansion of some gay rights.

Wardlow gained a national platform in his role as he defended businesses that practiced unequal treatment of gay or transgender people on religious grounds.

In 2015, Wardlow penned a piece for FOX News criticizing the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that the Constitution guarantees a nationwide right to same-sex marriage. Wardlow wrote: “Marriage is and always will be the union of one man and one woman for life, regardless whether the government incorrectly applies the label of marriage to other kinds of relationships.”

Last year, Wardlow, on behalf of ADF, argued against transgender accommodations before the Anoka-Hennepin School Board.

Wardlow told school board members “… there are boys, and there are girls, and boys and girls are fundamentally different in ways that really do matter.”

Wardlow doesn’t appear to still work for ADF, although his exact status is unclear. The organization has not responded to requests to clarify the question, and Wardlow and a spokesman did not answer it.

That detail helps flesh out the Wardlow - ADF connection. 

Please note, a large part of the GF Herald item dealt with an allegation of high school bullying which Wardlow has adamantly denied. Hence, only the part of the report dealing with undenied matters is excerpted above.

_______FURTHER UPDATE______

THREE CANDIDATES IN THE GOP AG PRIMARY - Schwartz, the endorsed Republican AG candidate has no background in managing a large law office, and his practice after law school has most recently been in private equity venture assistance, with no prior public service work. Wardlow has not had any experience managing a law office. Readers interested in the third primary candidate, Former legislator Dennis Smith, are encouraged to research his background. policy beliefs, and experience. 

Ellison has been endorsed for 2022 by the DFL to continue his heading the AG office. Prior to serving in Congress (before becoming AG) Ellison had extensive trial experience. Schwartz is not a trial lawyer, Wardlow possibly did some trial work with the Parker firm - Smith, as noted, is unknown to Crabgrass.

______CLARIFICATION UPDATE______

In citing an out of state and national magazine earlier in the post, the SF Gate item was after the GOP convened and endored Schultz for AG. The Newsweek item was from before that convention/endorsement.

The primary will be Aug. 9, 2022, but yesterday was the cutoff date for candidate filing, making the primary slates firm (See Pioneer Press, here, for reporting, AG and other races.)