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Thursday, August 18, 2022

The quaint situation where GOP AG candidate Jim Schultz is running upon a policy proposal dead set against the documented historical will and power held and exercised by his party cohort, Mary Kiffmeyer.

There is truth and there is half-baked hysteria and fear-mongering. Jim Schultz is running an "if it bleeds it leads" campaign for Attorney General. Keying in on violent crime he articulates no cost-benefit suggestion to lessen it, moreover, he offers no handgun regulatory reform policy or a suggestion even, with handguns clearly being the favored weapons of violent criminals.

 

from Schultz facebook page

Read that in the context that Schultz has never prosecuted nor defended a single criminal in his entire life. Or if he has he is not touting any such experience as he campaigns. Then - try reading it in a fair and balanced policy context where facts inconvenient to the Schultz fear-mongering approach come into play and define a more sincere fact-based context for policy and budget decision making.

Start with numbers, which any seasoned public law administrator (or wannabe) can see as irrefutable and suggestive of sensible risk-benefit prioritization.

Strib, Aug 11, 2022:

More than 13,000 deaths now linked to COVID-19 in Minnesota

CDC data show Minnesota counties at a high COVID-19 level increased from nine to 22 in the past week. 

Minnesota has passed another grim pandemic milestone as the state now counts more than 13,000 deaths connected with COVID-19.

The Minnesota Department of Health listed the figure Thursday in a weekly report that tallied 13,014 deaths overall, an increase of 36 fatalities since last week's data summary.

As the pandemic's death toll continues to mount, health officials urged caution as COVID-19 indicators over the past week showed small signs of increased hospitalizations in Minnesota, even as other readings suggested a small decline in virus activity.

Data updated Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the number of Minnesota counties listed at the high level for COVID-19 increased over the past week from nine to 22. All seven counties in the Twin Cities metro were listed at low level.

-and MPR News, July 27, 2021 - 

 The annual Uniform Crime Report covers a year marked by unrest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, staffing and morale problems within the police department in Minnesota’s largest city, the COVID-19 pandemic — which caused a surge in unemployment and other stresses on society — and a rise in violent crime in many other American cities. But the report's purpose is mostly to compile statistics for others to study, and it contains little analysis.

Minnesota recorded 185 murders in 2020, up 58 percent from 117 in 2019. That broke the record of 183 set in 1995 when Minneapolis alone had a record 97 homicides. The report said 75 percent of the state's murders last year were committed with guns, up from 69 percent in 2019. The homicide “clearance rate” was 65 percent of cases resulting in arrests, in line with 64 percent in 2019 but below the closure rates for 2016-18.

Other significant trends included a nearly 54 percent increase in arson to 710 fires after several years of declines. Motor vehicle thefts rose nearly 20 percent to 13,662, the most since 2005, amid a surge in carjackings. Bias crimes hit the highest number in 15 years, with 223 incidents reported, and 41 percent were motivated by bias against Black people. The value of property stolen jumped nearly 55 percent to $216 million, with big increases in thefts of food, grooming products, cash and vehicles.

Republicans seized on the data to portray Democrats as weak on crime, [...]

-and FOX 9, Aug, 12, 2022 -  

Minnesota saw 21% violent crime increase in 2021, according to new report

In the seven-county metro area (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties) violent crime rose by 23.9%, while violent crime in greater Minnesota rose by 16% during the same time period.

The report offers an annual summary of crime data submitted by law enforcement agencies throughout Minnesota. (Image taken from the state report)

FIRST -

Most of the crimes reported in aggregate are not unusual, or out of the prosecurtorial skill set and purview of Minnesota's County Attorney office holders - i.e., not requiring special expertise or assistance of Attorney General personnel. Those elected locally handling local law enforcement has been the norm since statehood and before. Local responsibility. Local control.

THEN -

Look at the clear big killer in the public law arena by a factor of ten - Covid. If you were an administrator knowing this, where would you put your budget and enforcement priorities to attack the big killer? 

KEEP THAT QUESTION IN MIND.


MARY KIFFMEYER

 Not that this is the first time Mary Kiffmeyer has been the problem instead of any part of a solution. But Schultz continues as he does, while we can weigh underlying facts he'd like ignored; where, thanks to MinnPost, [May 11, 2022] we have a fair picture of truth.


Why Attorney General Keith Ellison is getting pushback at the Legislature for a plan to help prosecutors in Greater Minnesota

Ellison said the issue is “98 percent” about Republicans wanting to stymie a progressive attorney general, one who is expected to face a tough reelection campaign this fall.

On Thursday, state Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer said in a statement that Ellison had “plenty of time and resources to shut down businesses last year,” and that “I think he has enough time and resources to prosecute crime now.”
Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer said in a statement that Ellison had “plenty of time and resources to shut down businesses last year,” and that “I think he has enough time and resources to prosecute crime now.” MinnPost photo by Tom Olmscheid

Republicans who control the Minnesota Senate have focused heavily this year on “tough on crime” legislation, aiming to respond to a wave of violent crime and the defund-the-police movement in the Twin Cities.

So one might think a small proposal from the state attorney general to bolster a team helping county attorneys prosecute complex criminal cases might be of interest. But so far the Senate GOP has opposed a $1.82 million plan from Democratic AG Keith Ellison to hire seven prosecutors that will primarily help counties in Greater Minnesota.

Ellison is taking the omission personally. He believes it has little to do with the team of prosecutors or their stated goal, but rather is “98 percent” a GOP effort to stick it to the progressive AG, who they have been reluctant to fund — and who is expected to face a tough reelection campaign this fall.

“Because it’s completely irrational and unconnected to any rational policy goal,” Ellison said when asked why he believes the lack of support is because of his politics. “When you strip away any rational policy goal, what are you left with?”

KEEP THAT QUESTION IN MIND.More MinnPost:

Ellison has been clashing with state Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer — a Big Lake Republican who chairs a committee with oversight of his office — over several issues, such as Ellison’s decision to sue several businesses that violated COVID restrictions put in place by Gov. Tim Walz during the pandemic.

Covid. The big killer, dwarfing handguns even. More MinnPost:

The latest impasse has become a high-profile one at the Capitol, where lawmakers are in their last two weeks of session hashing out how to use a projected $9.25 billion surplus.

On Thursday, Kiffmeyer said in a statement that Ellison had “plenty of time and resources to shut down businesses last year,” and that “I think he has enough time and resources to prosecute crime now.”

What Ellison wants

Ellison this year wants a $2.3 million increase for his office’s budget, which totals roughly $26.2 million in the 2023 fiscal year. The money would pay for raises meant to retain workers and add non-legal staff in IT, human resources, communications or outreach positions.

Separately, the AG asked for seven attorneys, plus two legal assistants, to help county attorneys prosecute violent or complicated crimes like sex trafficking, white-collar fraud, or other legal work like habeas corpus petitions.

Ellison said the extra staff to help county attorneys has been a priority since he took office. Beyond that, he has been advocating for increases to a small budget that has less money in 2023 than the $26.8 million the Legislature allocated in 2002.

Yes, do more with less, in an election year while Kiffmeyer's party cohort Schultz is futzing around on the crime issue, but not touching with a ten foot pole the anti-crime funding issue; a/k/a selective attention self-serving in nature. As in a "Kiffmeyer, who's that" manner. More MinnPost:

The AG’s office has brought in [...]  $300 million in settlements with opioid makers and distributors under Ellison. But cash from that legal work does not come back to the attorney general’s office, and Ellison says the settlements are evidence that the AG’s office isn’t getting its due in the budget.

As for the team of [County Attorney] prosecutors, Molly Hicken, the top attorney for northeast Minnesota’s Cook County, told the House’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Committee in March that the trade association representing her colleagues is “united in the great need for assistance from the AG’s office.”

“Especially for county attorney offices in rural and outstate Minnesota like mine,” Hicken said.

Molly Hicken
Molly Hicken
Hicken said half of Minnesota counties have just three or fewer attorneys in the county prosecutor’s office and 24 — including Cook — have two or fewer. Those attorneys have a huge portfolio, from prosecution to work as general counsel for the county, handling civil cases and even sitting in on county board meetings.

And while those prosecutors in smaller counties have trial experience, they can’t specialize in “the most serious of cases,” Hicken said, like murder, human trafficking, or certain white-collar crime, because they don’t come up as frequently. Those big cases can also eat up all of an office’s resources, leaving nothing left for remaining legal work.

In such situations, county attorneys often turn to the AG’s office, which has three attorneys in the unit helping counties on complex cases. When Ellison took over, they had just one.

Kathryn Lorsbach, the prosecutor in Clearwater County, told the House committee that her office of two attorneys and two support staff had to deal with two murder cases, a school resource officer sexually abusing children and the Line 3 oil pipeline protests between 2020 and 2021. That was at the same time as the county was dealing with regular caseloads and stressed by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Kathryn Lorsbach
Kathryn Lorsbach
So Lorsbach asked the AG’s office for help. “The resources, support and knowledge base that they brought to these high-stakes cases resulted in successful prosecutions,” she said. 

Without that help, it would be hard to achieve parity with metro counties, Lorsbach said. And while Hicken said prosecutors would not abandon their duty to prosecute tough cases without help from the AG, “all of the other legal work that this county requires would have to fall by the wayside because something has to give.”

[...]

Why Kiffmeyer is saying no

The House, which has a DFL majority, included the $1.82 million plan within a larger public safety proposal and would fund the $2.3 million for other staff and compensation, too. But the Senate has not supported either proposal.

Kiffmeyer said Tuesday that the Legislature did boost the AG’s budget significantly in recent years, saying the funding was generous enough to draw questions from her GOP colleagues. That budget was about $22 million between 2014 to 2019 and jumped several years in a row to a high of $28.7 million in 2022.

Kiffmeyer said if Ellison wants the prosecutors to be a priority, he can shift money and personnel within the office. And she jabbed at Ellison for suing 13 businesses or event organizers over violating COVID-19 restrictions set by Walz during the pandemic to limit spread of the disease before vaccines were widely available.

“The attorney general seemed to have plenty of time and resources to go out in rural Minnesota and shut businesses down which I don’t see in his jurisdiction necessarily,” Kiffmeyer said. “But he went out and used resources to do it. So I said, ‘Ok, this year you’ve got time and resources, use that for criminal prosecution.’”

Ellison, whose mother died of COVID-19, said the pandemic regulations were an effort to save lives and that he had to prosecute those breaking the law. It would have been unfair to let some businesses flout regulations while others were adhering to them, he said.

Rather than fund the team of prosecutors at the AG’s office, Kiffmeyer instead pushed $100,000 into more training for prosecutors. That was four times the request of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, which had asked for $25,000. The association has seen lots of turnover, so developing expertise and training the attorneys who train everyone else has been a priority.

Kiffmeyer said through training counties can help themselves, and they can rely on help from other counties. That avoids the “attorney general sucking up all this stuff into his office,” and is cheaper, she said. (Though, Robert Small, executive director for the County Attorneys Association, said it’s a “resource issue for our Greater Minnesota county attorneys” and increased AG staff would benefit them.)

So, Kiffmeyer has a hate on against Covid-controlled shutdown efforts against violators of pandemic protection measures they willingly mocked and violated. 

And, her talking AG budget, last few years, readers should remember earlier in the item - 

Ellison said the extra staff to help county attorneys has been a priority since he took office. Beyond that, he has been advocating for increases to a small budget that has less money in 2023 than the $26.8 million the Legislature allocated in 2002.

So, Kiffmeyer can spin until dizzy, but the truth is she and her Senate Republican majority are starving the office, thereby enabling Schultz to disingenuously simplify all the truth out of the issue to say "Crime is up, on Ellison's watch, elect me."

Whether or not there is a nod and wink between Schultz and Kiffmeyer, the money tap will open if he wins, the entire picture - THE FACTS - suggest this is not how efficient and fair government would operate.

Now, if Schultz were to honestly admit Kiffmeyer's control of the pursestrings during nine billion dollar surplus days makes it infeasible for Ellison to do what he advocates; then, what's Schultz got left? Elect me, a business and finance lawyer with no administrative or trial experience, nor prior legislative office holding, because -- and that would be where his pitch would hang and die.

Also, if Schultz lacks the balls to take on Kiffmeyer now over the unfairness of the way she's handling the funding issue, how do you imagine him taking on violent criminals? Just saying -

 

BOTTOM LINE: If it were not for Kiffmeyer and colleagues refusing funding, Ellison would be able to be doing exactly what Schultz says should be a function of the Attorney General's office, assisting local prosecutors more, hence, if not for Kiffmeyer currently starving the office Jim Schultz would not have a single sensible thing to run on. 

from Schultz facebook page

 

Schultz is an office lawyer, a paper shuffler, not a litigator. He has never run a major legal office - no administrative experience - and his background is in corporate and finance law, not criminal practice. His campaign is a sham unless he shows a willingness, presently lacking, to speak out against the current budget hamstringing of the AG office by his party cohort, Mary Kiffmeyer.

Schultz - as a new face and voice - should at least complete the BallotPedia survey so we could see who he is in light of his answering a nonpartisan survey aimed precisely at who he is.

 

click the image to enlarge and read it


 

_______UPDATE______

From earlier this year, other outlets coverage of the Ellison request for budget relief and support for the request from county attorneys: KARE 11, Duluth News Tribune, KSTP. And Ellison did enforce Covid pandemic protocols, with the death toll likely lessened. Another thing candidate Schultz dismisses by inattention; this. Ask yourself, could Schultz have done as well or better?