Paul Ostrow – a candidate for Hennepin County Attorney – released the following statement regarding the Primary Election results:
“I would like to congratulate Mary Moriarty and Martha Holton Dimick for advancing to the general election. I also want to thank all of the candidates for caring enough about our collective future to put themselves in the public arena.
I am proud of our campaign. We sought to elevate this race into a campaign of ideas. We sought to unite rather than divide by running as a truly nonpartisan candidate in a bipolar political world. We reached out to every community and sought to empower our immigrant communities.
I am not going anywhere. My passion for these issues will continue. I am saddened not by any sense of personal defeat but rather by the missed opportunity to do the work – I would have truly loved the opportunity to lead the County Attorney’s Office at this critical time.
I want to thank everyone who supported this campaign. I also want to thank those who did not support this campaign but were willing to listen and discuss our shared concerns. I leave this effort with so many wonderful memories and new friendships.
There will be plenty of time to consider why we were unable to climb this mountain. The dilemma we faced from Day One was how to motivate those disillusioned by politics to vote in a primary. We felt all along that if we could survive the primary our unifying message would be powerful in a general election campaign. In a general election campaign our specific plans to make Hennepin County safer and our truly game-changing Transparency Solution would have received the attention they deserved.
There are too many to thank to list them here. I want to thank the BDI team who ran this campaign – Ryan Vasquez for your passion and belief in this effort, AJ Awed for your outreach to our vibrant Somali community and your belief in our city and Zev Radziwill for your enthusiasm and marketing skills.
I am blessed with the love of my wonderful family and many special friendships. I am fortunate to return to work with an outstanding group of people and prosecutors at the Anoka County Attorney’s Office. And finally I am blessed by the opportunity to work as long as I am able to make our community stronger and our politics better.
All the best. – Paul“
