A Green Agenda for the Attorney General’s Office? A conversation with Green Party candidate Andy Dawkins

Andy Dawkins is running for attorney general as the endorsed candidate of the Minnesota Green Party.  A 15-year veteran of the State Legislature, former DFL endorsed candidate for mayor in St. Paul, and  an experienced lawyer and public administrator, Dawkins has a real opportunity to meet the 5 percent threshold required to restore major party status to the Greens, many political observers suggest.

That, in itself, would be a significant achievement if you believe that democracy in Minnesota is served by breaking the monopoly of the two-party system.  But even more significant are the policies an Attorney General Dawkins would pursue. They include:

• Divestment of the $3 billion currently invested in fossil fuel companies by the State Investment Board
• Opposition to the Polymet and Twin Metals copper nickel mining projects as currently proposed
• Promotion of rank-choice voting statewide
• Keeping a vigilant eye on corporate welfare schemes
• Proposing specific policies to reduce gun violence
• Supporting labor organizing—including in the attorney general’s office itself
• Repealing Minnesota’s laws prohibiting cannabis use and replacing them with a system of government regulated use

Co-hosts Siobahn Kierens and Tom O’Connell will discuss candidate Dawkin’s positions on these and other issues, as well as the actual role of the attorney general’s office. What exactly is the job of the attorney general?  What are the opportunities as well as limits (legal and otherwise) of actually implementing a Green/Progressive agenda?

For more information about Andy Dawkins and his campaign, visti www.dawkinsforag.com.