WCCO hosted a debate for Minnesota’s Attorney General Race Monday night. The debate was moderated by WCCO’s Susie Jones and Jason DeRusha, and featured Democratic incumbent Keith Ellison, and his Republican challenger Jim Schultz.
The subject of crime was a major focus of this debate, the second between the candidates. There was also a discussion of the $250 million "Feeding our Future" fraud issue that Ellison’s office was involved in investigating. The Schultz campaign has been critical of how that investigation was handled and specifically that the state continued to make payments after the fraud was discovered.
The prosecution of Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter was also brought up with the two candidates disagreeing on the severity of the sentence for Potter, who was convicted of 1st degree manslaughter for shooting Daunte Wright during a traffic stop.
WCCO political analyst Blois Olson told Vineeta Sawkar on WCCO’s Morning News Tuesday, that this race is razor-thin at this time.
“There are no third party candidates there, so that is a race where undecideds are either going to pick between the two of them, or just skip over the race when they vote which does happen in down-ballot races,” Olson said.
Olson added that the two candidates are talking about the office in two very different ways, and says how we traditionally use the Attorney General’s office is a part of this Election due to those differences.
You can listen to the entire debate here. The debate was sponsored by Minnesota Corn Growers, AARP of Minnesota, and Minnesota's Credit Unions.
