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In the increasingly fierce race for Minnesota attorney general, Republican challenger Jim Schultz has embraced a strange vision for the office he hopes to take from incumbent Keith Ellison. In comments first reported by Axios last week, Schultz suggested that Ellison and his predecessors have spent too much time chasing “frivolous” lawsuits that have harmed the bottom line of targeted business. Instead, Schultz would “reallocate resources from [those] divisions” toward aiding county attorneys who lack the resources to prosecute crimes. In other words, Schultz intends to defund corporate and nonprofit legal enforcement.

The comments were reported the day before federal authorities announced indictments in a sweeping fraud investigation against the sham nonprofit Feeding Our Future, which managed to steal millions of dollars in federal aid meant to ease child hunger during the pandemic. While the Minnesota attorney general’s office has limited jurisdiction over fraudulent receipt of federal funds, Ellison’s office appears to have set the federal investigation in motion by tipping off the FBI about the fake charity’s suspicious behavior.

While Schultz’s comments are eyebrow-raising in light of the massive federal fraud case that Ellison’s office helped pull together, they are indicative of the candidates’ respective backgrounds. While Ellison has spent most of his career in public service—first in the state legislature and U.S. Congress and now as attorney general—Schultz has spent the entirety of his brief career in the private sector, advising the same companies he believes are getting too much heat from the attorney general’s office. Over just ten years practicing law, Schultz has worked for prestigious corporate legal firms Kirkland & Ellis and Dorsey & Whitney, and as an attorney and in-house counsel for investment firms.