Mayville lawyer William Brudvik is running for the Democratic endorsement for attorney general, saying incumbent Republican Wayne Stenehjem has mishandled some aspects of a school finance lawsuit against the state.

Stenehjem should not have hired an outside law firm to help defend the lawsuit, Brudvik said Monday. The state has paid more than $400,000 to the Atlanta firm, Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan LLP, which has expertise in defending similar lawsuits in other states.

"I would not have outsourced the defense of the school funding lawsuit to $350-an-hour attorneys in Atlanta, Ga.," Brudvik said at a news conference here. "I would have kept that case in house."

Nine school districts sued the state in October 2003, claiming North Dakota's system of aiding local schools was too reliant on local property taxes, and did not provide enough money to finance an adequate education for students.

It was scheduled for trial in February, but the schools agreed to delay the lawsuit in exchange for Gov. John Hoeven's promise to seek $60 million in added spending on local schools during the 2007 Legislature. The governor also appointed a special commission to study education finance and draft proposed reforms.

Brudvik said he believed Stenehjem was not aggressive enough in seeking mediation of the dispute. The state and the school districts spent more than $1.2 million in legal fees and expenses preparing for trial, he said.

"I would have pushed for mediation in the beginning of the lawsuit, and not on the courthouse steps," he said.

Stenehjem said the state initiated settlement talks last summer, and the two groups began holding regular meetings last September. Attorneys for the state had limited negotiating power, because the Legislature would have to approve any money settlement, he said.

"This was not something that was done at the last minute," Stenehjem said.

Stenehjem said he decided to hire the Atlanta firm for legal help rather than make additions to his own staff. His civil litigation director, assistant attorney general Douglas Bahr, is still the state's lead attorney in the case, Stenehjem said.

"These cases are highly complex pieces of litigation, and they require all kinds of resources," he said. "As we went through the … fiscal effect of the whole thing, it was far more economical for the state to rely in part on another law firm, who has done this kind of litigation before."

Brudvik, 59, is a native of Mohall, in Renville County in northwestern North Dakota. He is a partner in the Ohnstad Twichell firm, which is based in West Fargo and has 19 attorneys. Brudvik works in the firm's Mayville office.

He is a former president of the North Dakota Council of School Attorneys and the North Dakota Municipal Attorneys Association. He said he has never sought political office before.

North Dakota's attorney general is a member of the Industrial Commission, which is the board of directors for the Bank of North Dakota.