Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem is funding his re-election campaign with illegal corporate donations, Democratic opponent Bruce Schoenwald said Thursday. Stenehjem dismissed the allegation as "political malpractice."

Schoenwald, a Fargo attorney, said Stenehjem is breaking North Dakota's law forbidding direct corporate donations to political campaigns.

The complaint centers on donations from the Republican State Leadership Committee, a Washington-based political action committee that gives money to Republicans in state and local races around the country.

The committee gets contributions from such groups as the Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, of which Stenehjem was chairman in 2002.

The attorneys general group collects money from political groups, corporations and individual donors and passes it to the RLSC, which donates money to Republican campaigns.

However, the political committee does not violate North Dakota law because it keeps donations from corporations and individuals in separate accounts, Stenehjem said.

Schoenwald said he has seen no evidence to support Stenehjem's claim.

"If he can open those books to me so I can look at it and see everything I want to see, I'll shut up about RAGA for the rest of this campaign," Schoenwald said.

Disclosure reports filed with the North Dakota secretary of state show Stenehjem received $50,000 from the Republican political committee in February. Schoenwald said he has refused money from a similar group that favors Democrats.

Schoenwald said he sent a letter asking the Burleigh County prosecutor to investigate possible violations of the anti-corporate contribution law.

"In any other circumstance, it should be the attorney general who should be looking at this, and he's up to his neck in it," Schoenwald said.

The Democrat called on Stenehjem to give back the money and said the attorney general should be "held accountable."

Stenehjem said Schoenwald hasn't done his homework.

Candidates in North Dakota and in states with similar corporate funding laws get money only from individuals to avoid any illegal donations, he said.

"It's such sloppy research and shoddy legal analysis for someone who wants to be attorney general, it amounts to political malpractice," Stenehjem said.

"Believe me, I know what the law is. I helped write them when I was in the Legislature," he said.