Minnesota attorney general candidates Ellison and Schutz talk fraud, Operation Metro surge during debate

Could a Republican become Minnesota's top law enforcement official for the first time in more than 50 years? 

Attorney Ron Schutz is facing off against incumbent Keith Ellison in the race for Minnesota attorney general. On Friday, the two participated in a debate hosted by Minnesota Public Radio.

A lot has changed since Keith Ellison's last re-election, including Operation Metro Surge and the state's fraud crisis.

Ellison highlighted the work his office has done to combat the Trump administration, emphasizing the 75 lawsuits filed against the federal government. He also positioned himself as a man of the people, saying that he, too, was in the cold with other protesters during the operation. Ultimately, he credited his team's work with cooling the tensions and said his work isn't done.

"I also did another thing the public might not know. Yes, I sat down with Tom Homan and JD Vance and told them both that this surge, this targeted search against Minnesota, is unwarranted, is illegal and it needs to stop," Ellison said.

He later added, "When the whole world sees videotape of a man being shot on the street ten times, it makes sense for local authorities to take the action that I took."

There was a lot of interest in how Schutz would respond to questions about the operation as a candidate who's mostly in line with President Trump. He emphasized that he's not opposed to prosecuting the federal agents who killed Alex Pretti. 

"I was outraged by what happened there, called for a joint state and federal investigation. If you look, that probably didn't make me popular in certain circles in Washington, D.C. But that was the right thing to call for. It might be the only thing that Keith Ellison and I agree on is that there had to be a joint investigation, and wherever the facts lead out of that investigation, that's where they lead. If it leads to prosecutions and evidence warrants it, that's what should happen," Schutz said.

On the subject of fraud, Ellison pointed to the roughly 350 fraud prosecutions by his office. He also defended a meeting he took with Feeding Our Future fraudsters before the case was blown open.

"These people lied to judges, they lied to journalists, they tried to lie their way through court. Then what we did is we began to work with the FBI. There were search warrants executed, there were indictments, now those people are in prison, as they should be," Ellison said.

Schutz pushed back, claiming many of those fraud cases ended with slaps on the wrist. 

"In my view, I don't think that this attorney general has done a good job prosecuting those cases. He claims to have prosecuted 350 cases," he said.

Schutz later added, "In the overwhelming majority of those cases, no one went to jail, nobody had a felony on their record and, if anything, they paid cents on the dollar. That is because of the way the cases were prosecuted," he said.

Schutz also spent time highlighting his courtroom practice, painting himself as a seasoned lawyer and Ellison as a politician.

"This race really comes down to a choice between someone who spent his career in the courtroom as a trial lawyer and someone who is a politician," he said. "I would ask Minnesotans to ask themselves this question: if they had to go to court and their life, their liberty, their property were at stake and they absolutely needed to win, who would they want to go into court with them?" 

Ellison responded by highlighting his work and pointing to Schutz stock portfolio. 

"My core goal is to help people afford their lives," he said. "That's why I left Congress and why I became AG, why lowering the cost of insulin, my first thing that I did, but I didn't stop there. We also started a wage theft unit where we actually fight for, and get back, millions of dollars of stolen wages of workers. I sued John Deere because they were interfering with farmers' ability to repair equipment. That is a cost-lowering measure. I sued Meta. I sued them because they were pushing these addictive algorithms, which were hooking our kids. I sued Phillip Morris because they were doing the same thing with these vapes. Now, my opponent owns stock in all these things."

The last Republican to hold the position of attorney general in Minnesota left office in 1971.