I Ask For Your Vote and Your Help
11/04/2006
November 4, 2006
Dear Fellow Minnesotan:
I ask for your vote in Tuesday’s election for Attorney General. I also ask that you consider helping me by forwarding this email to at least five friends or family members who may still be deciding who to vote for in this important race.
I’m running for Attorney General to stand up for ordinary Minnesotans against companies and criminals that break the law. We live in an era where people don’t always feel the government represents them. People have been able to count on me to be on their side as Minnesota’s Solicitor General and Deputy Attorney General for the last seven and one-half years. On my watch, the government has listened to and cared about the concerns of ordinary Minnesotans.
As Attorney General, I’ll hit the ground running for the people of Minnesota from Day One. As Attorney General, I will:
• Hold HMOs, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies accountable for wrongdoing.
• Be responsive to the needs of the citizens and not be afraid of taking action to hold corporations accountable when they break our laws.
• Fight for real public safety, which includes both assisting county attorneys in prosecuting crime and advocating for restored public safety funding on key crime prevention initiatives.
I am proud that newspapers across Minnesota, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press, Mesabi Daily News, and the New Ulm Journal have all endorsed my candidacy. Just look at what some of these papers have said:
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Star Tribune
22 October 2006
Editorial: Lori Swanson for attorney general
We live in a new gilded age. One symptom of the deep imbalance in American life is the epidemic of corruption sweeping Congress. Not since the late 19th century have corporations, trade associations and other moneyed interests held such a commanding grip on government policy, further widening the gap between the successful and the struggling. Congressional scholar Norman Ornstein describes a “self-reinforcing loop” of big money that perpetuates the political and financial power of those who already have it.
That’s a roundabout way of saying that ordinary Minnesotans, those outside the money loop, need an attorney general attuned to their interests. Lori Swanson best fits the bill. Her experience as solicitor general and as deputy to Mike Hatch makes her the best-prepared candidate in this race. While Hatch has sometimes overreached and unfairly antagonized business interests, his office has, on the whole, performed admirably as the law firm for the people and their government. Protecting consumers from constant streams of scam artists, high and low, remains the core work of the office, and more so now in the age of the Internet.
Swanson, the DFL candidate, strikes us as bright, fair, tough-minded, politically moderate and extremely organized. She seems to have no desire for the grandstand. Ambition for higher office is not apparent. If she is elected, however, and Hatch becomes governor, Swanson must make clear her independence from him.
Jeff Johnson, her Republican opponent, is a capable, likable and respected suburban legislator who is also well suited to the job, but whose views on policy place him outside the mainstream.
Consider his vote in 2004 to strip all state funding from the University of Minnesota for accepting private donations for stem cell research. Or his bill to restrict policyholders from suing their insurance companies. Or his vote against disclosure of compensation packages paid to HMO and health insurance executives, the very issue that rocked UnitedHealth Group last week.
Johnson makes much of the crime issue, accusing Hatch of cutting staff and deemphasizing his crime-fighting role. But criminal division staff, criminal appeals, murder cases handled and sexual predators committed have all risen since 1998. In any case, the attorney general is not the state’s top law enforcer (that’s the commissioner of public safety), but lends aid, when asked, to small counties needing help with prosecutions.
Johnson is right to highlight crime as a serious threat. But as a legislator he repeatedly voted to cut funding for public safety, including state aid used for local police and courts.
John James, the Independence Party candidate, is a respected lawyer, former revenue commissioner and an expert on taxes and environmental law. But with voters in a mood for sharper choices, his analytical campaign hasn’t gained traction.
The Green Party’s Papa John Kolstad is an accomplished musician, small-business owner and a top authority on health insurance. Excluded from debates, his contribution to the race has been unfortunately minimal.
Of these contenders, Swanson is the best choice to look after the legal needs of ordinary people.
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New Ulm Journal
30 October 2006
Editorial: Swanson for Attorney General
With Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch in the governor’s race this year, it’s time for Minnesota to pick a new attorney general.
What should we be looking for? The Attorney General is the state’s legal counsel, advising its commissions and agencies on legal matters, protecting the state’s and the people’s rights in legal matters, and acting, when needed, as a prosecutor when a county attorney needs assistance on an unusual case.
Minnesota voters have a candidate who knows the job well in Lori Swanson. Swanson, the DFL candidate, has worked in the Attorney General’s office, serving as Minnesota’s Solicitor General and Deputy Attorney General for 7-1/2 years.
That gives her excellent experience in working for the people, protecting them against the threat of computerized bunco artists and identity thieves, and greedy, self-serving corporations and organizations.
Swanson has not been a political animal up to now, suggesting her ambition is to do the work she has been doing rather than positioning herself for higher office.
Swanson won the DFL endorsement after the political pick, Matt Entenza, self-destructed. The DFL picked someone who could do the job, not just win the election.
We think that makes Swanson the best choice for the Attorney General’s office.
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Minnesota Daily
01 November 2006
Editorial: Swanson for attorney general
Lori Swanson’s experience makes her the best choice.
On Tuesday, there’s a selection we’ll be making in the ballot box that’s had a considerably lower profile than others this election season. The post is Attorney General and, while there hasn’t been much mudslinging in this race, don’t let that make you think it’s any less important. The Attorney General is the state’s highest ranking legal officer and is responsible for consumer advocacy, enforcing antitrust laws, investigating corporate malfeasance and ensuring that criminals are brought to justice and average citizens are afforded protection under the law.
We believe that Lori Swanson is the best choice for Minnesota. She has seven years experience working in the Attorney General’s office, first as a deputy to Mike Hatch and, since 2003, as Solicitor General where she organized and directed state investigations.
Her record on health care is particularly promising in a time when nearly 400,000 Minnesotans are uninsured. Her audits of providers including HealthPartners, Medica, Allina and Fairview Health Services found obscene amounts of company money spent by executives on lavish vacations and golfing trips - money that could have been used to provide better health care to their clients. Swanson also led an audit that found uninsured patients were being charged by hospitals up to four times more than insurance companies had to pay for the same treatment and she negotiated to end that plainly unethical practice.
Republican candidate Jeff Johnson deserves commendation for his leadership on methamphetamine legislation during his time in the House, but some of his other positions are alarming. In 2004, Johnson voted to cut all funding to the University of Minnesota because of privately funded stem-cell research conducted at the University.
Reckless votes like this make us question whether as attorney general he would be beholden to narrow ideological interests outside the mainstream and clearly puts him at odds with the University’s priority of being a top research institution.
While the Independence Party’s John James and Green Party’s Papa John Kolstad are also worthy of consideration, we believe Swanson’s experience makes her the most qualified to look out for the interests of all Minnesotans as our next Attorney General.