The GOP-aligned Minnesota Jobs Coalition — House GOP chief of staff Ben Golnik's old shop — sent out a nasty mailer on House DFL Minority Leader Melissa Hortman with the tag: "Why is Melissa Hortman enabling the sexual harassment of women?"
On the other side of the mail piece, there's a photo of Hortman with Sen. Al Franken and this: "Warning: Potentially Explicit Photo Inside."
The punchline? The mailer — I've only seen photos of it so far — was sent to a home in the district of … Rep. Nolan West. So they're beating up on Hortman outside her district, presumably to help West. He's the first-term Blaine Republican elected in 2016 despite Star Tribune reporting about his Facebook posts in which he celebrated the Confederate battle flag and called Abraham Lincoln the nation's worst president.
The irony for Hortman? She's the one who brought concerns of some women DFL lawmakers about harassment and gender discrimination to House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, earlier this year. Daudt then scheduled mandatory sexual harassment training for the next legislative session.
Hortman also says she specifically mentioned concerns about disgraced former Rep. Tony Cornish to Daudt, but he says she never mentioned Cornish. Hortman is also an employment lawyer, so she knows the issue. As Karl Rove taught us, hit your opponent's perceived strengths and turn them into weaknesses.
Ruthless, shameless, brilliant? Perhaps all three.
Clark in for AG
Returning to last week's subject of the attorney general race: St. Paul City Attorney Sam Clark, who was state director for Sen. Amy Klobuchar, is in, with an official announcement this week. Expect some big local names in law enforcement to back him.
Other DFL candidates include state Rep. Debra Hilstrom, DFL-Brooklyn Center; former state Rep. Ryan Winkler; progressive attorney and activist Matt Pelikan; and Mike Rothman, who recently resigned as commerce commissioner.
