Andrew J. Dawkins (born July 29, 1950) is an American politician and attorney from

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. Dawkins is a former member of the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the U.S. state of Minnesota's Minnesota Legislature, legislature. It operates in conjunction with the Minnesota Senate, the state's upper chamber, to write and pass legislation, whic ...

from Saint Paul. Running as a Democrat, Dawkins was first elected in 1986 to represent District 65A, and was reelected every two years until opting not to seek reelection in 2002. In 1993, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Saint Paul against

Norm Coleman Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. (born August 17, 1949) is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a United States Senate, United States Senator for Minnesota. From 1994 to 2002, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Mi ...

. He married Ellen Anderson, a Minnesota state senator from St. Paul, in 1995; they divorced in 2018. He was the

Green Party of Minnesota The Green Party of Minnesota is a green political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States. History The Minnesota Greens Confederation, founded 1990–1991, fostered the development of lo ...

nominee for Minnesota Attorney General in the 2014 election, earning 1.5% of the vote and restoring the party's minor-party status.

Biography

Originally from Chicago, Dawkins came to Minnesota in the late 1960s to attend the Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul. During law school, he moved to Philadelphia to work with homeless youth, but intended to return to Minnesota. In 1978, he established a neighborhood law practice in Saint Paul's Frogtown neighborhood and set a personal goal of gaining election to the Legislature within 10 years. Before joining the Legislature, Dawkins said it was important to him that he get to know the neighborhood and its residents' concerns, so he volunteered for a number of community organizations and the

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is a political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota affiliated with the national Democratic Party. The party was formed by a merger between the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Minneso ...

. First elected to the House in a November 1987 special election, Dawkins filled the District 65A seat vacated by former Speaker of the House Fred Norton (DFL-St. Paul) upon Norton's appointment to the state Court of Appeals. After leaving the legislature in 2003, Dawkins led the department of Neighborhood Housing and Property Improvement for the city of Saint Paul for several years. In 2006, he began working as an attorney at the law firm of Mansfield, Tanick, and Cohen. In June 2014, Dawkins announced that he would run for Minnesota Attorney General under the Minnesota Green Party banner. While Dawkins' 1.49% of the vote in the November election re-qualified the Green Party for minor-party status, he failed to meet the 5% threshold to elevate it to the major-party status it once held in Minnesota.

Minnesota House of Representatives

Dawkins served on several House committees during his time in the Minnesota House, including those governing capital investment, family and civil law, energy and regulated industries, environment and natural resources, financial institutions and insurance, housing, jobs and economic development, and taxes. He also sponsored youth works legislation to provide college tuition to students volunteering in communities, much like the AmeriCorps program; the Great Northern Corridor economic development project; and a homeownership program for urban and low-income residents. Dawkins also sponsored several measures in an effort to raise awareness of drug crimes and prostitution problems in Frogtown and to study racial bias in the state court system.

Positions

Money in Politics

As a DFL State Legislator for 15 years, Dawkins saw firsthand how money dictated what got done in government:

I had enough seniority as a democrat to be the tax chair in the Minnesota Legislature but I was told 'Dawkins you'll never be the tax chair 'cause you pissed off the real-estate industry, you pissed off the bankers, and you tried to do the tax stuff the right way for the little guys and they’re not going to let you be the tax chair'. I was told that I'm not going to be the tax chair unless I can get these big lobbyists to support me to be the tax chair. Minnesota's no different than Washington; big money runs our country on every level these days.

Who gets to run, who gets elected, what gets enacted, who gets served by what gets enacted is all ruled by big money these days. I would get the million dollars once in a while for a little housing program or start a youth program ... but when you're talking about the hundreds of millions of dollars that's at play all the time in politics; if the insurance companies don't like your bill then it ain't gonna move, if you don't write something in so that they come out o.k. the bankers and the finance industries and the lenders will put a stop to it, it's up and down the line.

Sulfide/Copper Nickel Mining

Dawkins is strongly opposed to the Polymet Mining Corporation and Twin Metals Minnesota LLC proposed sulfide/copper-nickel mines in northern Minnesota. Because of the threat of

acid mine drainage Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines and coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weatherin ...

to the

Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW or BWCA) comprises of pristine forests, glacial lakes, and streams in the Superior National Forest. Located entirely within the U.S. state of Minnesota at the Boundary Waters, the wilderness are ...

and the short term nature of the jobs these mines will create, Dawkins had this to say:

I don't think we need to do any sort of sulfide mining, period ... the whole thing is about profit for foreign investors, and to then argue there's a few jobs in the mining industry, well, compare that to the amount of jobs we'd get if we keep doing renewables and sustainables. Until we have that debate, I'm totally against.

Electoral reform

In 1994, Dawkins accepted the Twin Cities Area New Party's nomination alongside his state representative candidacy under the

. However, state law prohibited fusion voting, resulting in the 1997

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

decision '' Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party'', which upheld such laws as beyond the scope of the First Amendment's

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline membe ...

. Dawkins supported Saint Paul's

instant-runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV; ranked-choice voting (RCV), preferential voting, alternative vote) is a single-winner ranked voting election system where Sequential loser method, one or more eliminations are used to simulate Runoff (election), ...

ballot initiative. While running for Minnesota Attorney General, Dawkins endorsed ranked-choice voting.

Cannabis Legalization

Dawkins supports legalizing "sensible" use of recreational marijuana.

Electoral history

References

External links

Dawkins for Attorney General
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawkins, Andrew J. 1950 births Living people People from Ramsey County, Minnesota Politicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota Hamline University alumni Temple University Beasley School of Law alumni Democratic Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives Minnesota lawyers Minnesota Greens 21st-century members of the Minnesota Legislature