Local defense attorney Jeffrey Sheridan’s bid to unseat the incumbent Dakota County attorney last week fell short by a margin of 57-43 percent.
This wouldn’t necessarily be news if not for a huge influx of last-minute campaign cash from New York City-based financier George Soros. An entity called the Minnesota Justice & Public Safety PAC first registered with the state Campaign Finance Board (CFB) on October 13, just three weeks before election day. On October 16, they reported spending $220,000 in support of Sheridan’s campaign. They did not, however, report any campaign contributions.
That came on October 28 in the form of a $478,000 contribution from Soros’ Democracy PAC. The campaign finance website Influence Watch reports,
Justice and Public Safety PAC is a left-of-center PAC that focuses on supporting the campaigns of left-of-center prosecutors. The PAC receives most of its funding from left-leaning billionaire George Soros and Democracy PAC, which also receives much of its funding from Soros.
What does Soros care about a county prosecutor in a midwestern suburb? As it happened, his last-minute money bought votes at the rate of $6.58 each. Cheap at twice the price.
Had Soros succeeded, he would have installed a prosecutor focused on “Community. Safety. Justice.” A defense attorney by profession, Sheridan promised a new approach to prosecution. In reality, Sheridan would have followed the example of the prosecutor north of the river, Mary Moriarty, in not prosecuting criminals, only prosecuting cops and conservative journalists.
Moriarty herself chose not to run for re-election this year and will be succeeded by current state Rep. Cedrick Frazier (D-New Hope). Frazier won a close contest over former U.S. Attorney Anders Folk by a margin of 51-49. Frazier looks to pick up exactly where the soft-on-crime Moriarty left off.
For his part, Frazier was backed by a different out-of-state left-wing outfit, something called the Working Families Party (WFP) of Brooklyn, New York. Strangely enough, Frazier and Sheridan were the only Minnesota candidates endorsed by WFP in Minnesota for any office this cycle.
Birds of a feather!