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Capitol View®
Tim Pugmire

County prosecutors blast GOP campaign literature

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The Minnesota County Attorneys Association is calling a piece of Republican campaign literature “misleading” for its portrayal of recent changes to the state’s expungement law.

Lawmakers passed a bipartisan measure last session that made it easier for some people convicted of non-violent offenses to find jobs or housing by sealing their records. Employers still have access to those such records during background checks when filling jobs that deal with children or vulnerable adults.

But the state GOP is using the legislation against several House DFL incumbents, claiming they “made it easier for felons to hide their records and work with children in our schools.”

The MCAA supported the legislation. In a letter to House leaders, Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi responded to the campaign literature and called the changes “good public policy.”

“It is unfortunate that during the course of election campaigns that misleading statements about the negative impact of the reforms to the expungement law have been published,” they wrote. “Not only are such statements misleading, they run contrary to the principles of justice and good public policy that these reforms addressed.”

A spokesman for the Republican Party of Minnesota was not immediately available for comment.