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County attorney races are generally low-key affairs, but the election for Hennepin County Attorney more than two years after George Floyd was murdered by a former Minneapolis police officer shows signs of becoming increasingly contentious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At a forum in downtown Minneapolis Thursday sponsored by business groups, former prosecutor and judge Martha Holton Dimick struck out repeatedly at her opponent, former chief Hennepin County public defender Mary Moriarty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy experience is a lot stronger than an experiment from someone who has just done defense attorney work and has just worked with criminals,\u201d Dimick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dimick later accused Moriarty of getting support from a \u201cdark money\u201d political action committee, as well as from officials like U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and State Attorney General Keith Ellison, who Dimick said are \u201csome of the strongest \u2018defund the police\u2019\u201d supporters. <\/p>\n
Both Ellison and Omar supported a failed ballot question last November that would have replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety. Mayor Jacob Frey, who opposed the ballot question, has since created a new Office of Community Safety to oversee the department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moriarty said she\u2019s proud that she\u2019s run a positive campaign that includes supporters with diverse views, and that she welcomes the endorsement of her congressperson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dimick also accused Moriarty of employing \u201cpolice abolitionists\u201d in her campaign. Which Moriarty said was a reference to an Open Streets festival in north Minneapolis over the weekend where Dimick confronted police abolition activists unconnected to Moriarty\u2019s campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[Dimick] responded by saying that they\u2019re my supporters; they were an abolitionist group I didn\u2019t know anything about,\u201d Moriarty said. \u201cThis fear-mongering, the lies that are being told here, are something that I don\u2019t think are playing well in this campaign.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dimick said she was angry that the activists at the festival were displaying photos of the finalists for the new Minneapolis police chief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderneath their names were pictures of pigs. Each one of them had a different pig under their name. They were also handing out these little pigs that go \u2018oink, oink,\u2019\u201d Dimick said. \u201cThis is my neighborhood. They don\u2019t belong in my neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dimick denied allegations made on social media that she spit on the activists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During most of the forum, Moriarty and Dimick outlined the different approaches they\u2019d take to the job, which oversees the largest prosecutor\u2019s office in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moriarty said she\u2019d make decisions as the top prosecutor in the county based on data and research.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t continue to do the things that we\u2019ve always done, because we know that doesn\u2019t work to keep us safe,\u201d Moriarty said. \u201cWe need something new. We need something different than the status quo, and that\u2019s what I bring to this race.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dimick said gun violence and crimes by youth are out of control in the city of Minneapolis, and that the head prosecutor could help ensure that violence doesn\u2019t spread.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here to extoll public safety. It\u2019s very important,\u201d Dimick said. \u201cWe can not enable our criminals anymore. We need to protect our communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked about how they\u2019d approach the prosecution of a police officer who commits a crime, Dimick said she agreed with the approach of current County Attorney Mike Freeman, who in recent years has generally made charging decisions about police officers on his own. But she said that she wouldn\u2019t send the cases to the state attorney general\u2019s office for prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have all the evidence, all the issues. We need to know about the law, how we\u2019re going to charge the case,\u201d Dimick said. \u201cWe can not capitulate to these activists because they\u2019re screaming in our faces \u2013 we need to take the time to do our job justly and thoroughly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moriarty said she wouldn\u2019t send fatal shootings by police to neighboring county attorneys or to a grand jury, a process that\u2019s been criticized for secrecy and a lack of transparency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a way that prosecutors have hidden behind their decisions, by having a grand jury make a decision,\u201d Moriarty said. \u201cTo me, right now, the people of Hennepin County are electing the next county attorney to make those decisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both candidates also said they\u2019d try to balance concerns about mass incarceration with a focus on prosecuting violent crime. They also agreed that they wouldn\u2019t charge people for possession of marijuana.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his final question during the forum, MPR News reporter Brian Bakst asked whether the candidates had one positive thing to say about their opponent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moriarty said that she respected that Dimick had worked her way through nursing and law school as a single mother and overcome challenges as a woman of color.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dimick pointed out that Moriarty was younger than she is, yet had run an office of public defenders, which she said is extremely important in the criminal justice system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moriarty won the DFL endorsement in a seven-way race last month with more than twice as many votes as Dimick. She has also been endorsed by a number of political groups and dozens of current lawmakers from Minneapolis and the Hennepin County suburbs. <\/p>\n
Dimick has been endorsed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, law enforcement groups, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and former and current local officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n