The Minnesota D-F-L Party is trying to convince authorities to mount an official investigation in hopes of clearing its attorney general candidate Keith Ellison of domestic abuse allegations — but government agencies they’ve asked have all said “no”. Hamline University analyst David Schultz says Democrats are trying to take some of the heat off Ellison before the election, but “instead it’s kind of backfired on ’em, because now the story seems to be coming out about the Democrats and the D-F-L trying to ‘shop around’ the report [from the investigator the party hired], trying to pretty [it] up in some way. It really hasn’t worked out the way they were hoping it would.”
Schultz says the D-F-L’s efforts won’t change the minds of undecided voters, but on the other hand could influence early voters now casting their ballots. He says, “Had they [the DFL Party] just sort of let it go, there would have been some people who were still grumbling about this, who had questions about it, but it would have faded by Election Day. This is a bad move in terms of bringing it up and now, the idea of sort of ‘shopping it around’.”
The Minneapolis Police Department refused Wednesday to investigate allegations against Ellison, citing conflict of interest. The Minneapolis City Attorney’s office had the same response one day earlier. And the Dakota County Attorney said Tuesday he would review the case only if there was first an investigation by law enforcement.