ST. CLOUD -- It is a crowded field of candidates running for Minnesota Attorney General. One of the five DFL candidates, Mike Rothman, stopped by the WJON studios Wednesday.

He spent over seven years as the state's Commerce Commissioner and he has been an attorney for 30 years.

He says, if he is elected, his top priority will be the ongoing drug crisis.

To tackle the opioid crisis, I'd like to go after the companies that are putting these bad drugs onto the marketplace.  I want to work with the healthcare industry to find solutions.  I also feel it is very important to tackle high drug prices.

We asked Mike Rothman about current AG Lori Swanson's decision to join 16 other states in suing to force the Trump Administration to reunite migrant families have been separated at the Mexican border.

I believe that our nation has been built on immigration as well as religious freedom.

However, Rothman says as the state's top lawyer it is important to keep politics out of the job.

It would be good to keep the Attorney General's office in a place where it is doing the legal work for Minnesotans.  You can't be the Attorney General for the state and base your decisions simply on politics.

Rothman announced his candidacy for Attorney General back in November, when it was assumed current Attorney General Lori Swanson was going to run for higher office. When she instead announced her bid for re-election Rothman suspended his campaign. When Swanson failed to get the DFL endorsement at the convention, she decided to move over to the race for Governor. That is when Rothman jumped back into the race.

Matt Pelikan is the endorsed DFL candidate, in a field that also includes current 5th District Congressman Keith Ellison.

The DFL party has held the office of Minnesota Attorney General for 47 years.

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