A tale of two senators

The Republican

Last Tuesday, Republican state Senator Justin Eichorn was “arrested on suspicion of soliciting a minor for prostitution.” His Republican colleagues in the state Senate immediately called for his resignation:

Eichorn’s fellow Republicans in the House followed suit as quickly:

Sen. Erin Murphy, head of the DFL in the state Senate, was more equivocal. She released a statement saying:

The felony allegation against Senator Eichorn is deeply disturbing, and raises serious questions that will need to be answered by the court, as well as his caucus and constituents.

On Wednesday, state and federal felony charges were filed against Eichorn. Senate Republicans released a statement saying that they would bring a motion to expel him:

Suddenly, a wave of Senate DFLers were moved to issue statements calling for Eichorn’s resignation and indicated that they would support the GOP’s move to expel him. On Thursday, Eichorn resigned, and the legislative matter came to rest, at least for now.

To recap: A Republican state Senator was arrested for a felony offense and his colleagues immediately called on him to resign. When he was charged, they moved to expel him.

The Democrat

Contrast this with the DFL’s behavior toward the Minnesota state Senate’s other accused felon, Nicole Mitchell. Not only did her Senate DFL colleagues not call for her to resign when she was arrested, not only did they not move to expel her when she was charged, but, when she returned to the Senate, they embraced her.

And, when Senate Republicans brought a motion to expel Mitchell, every single Senate Democrat voted to keep her in, with Mitchell herself casting the deciding vote. Mitchell’s trial — her much anticipated “day in court” — was delayed as a result.

What explains the DFL’s wildly different attitudes to the two accused felons in the state Senate?

The Star Tribune reports:

Asked Thursday why Democrats were ready to expel Eichorn but not Mitchell, Murphy said the difference between the two cases is “night and day.”

“It is largely a family situation,” Murphy said of Mitchell’s case. “She was allegedly in the home of her father to retrieve ashes. … She will have her day in court. She doesn’t pose a risk.”

Here is a recap of the “family situation:”

Around one o’clock in the morning of Monday, April 22 [2024], Democratic state Sen. Nicole Mitchell set off on the 200-mile drive from her home in Woodbury to her stepmother’s home in Detroit Lakes. On arrival, dressed all in black and carrying a flashlight covered with a black sock to reduce emitting light, the senator entered the house through a basement window and went to her stepmother’s bedroom. At some point, Sen. Mitchell’s stepmother was awakened and the senator “ran down into the basement.” Mitchell’s stepmother called the police at 4:45 a.m. When officers arrived, they arrested her and, searching her black backpack, found two laptops, a cellphone, and miscellaneous Tupperware. “I know I did something bad,” the senator told the officers. When Sen. Mitchell was given one of the laptops found in her backpack to open, which she claimed was hers, her stepmother’s name appeared on the screen. The senator said the laptop had been given to her “way back when”; her stepmother denies giving the laptop to Sen. Mitchell.  

This is what Sen. Murphy dismisses as a “family situation.”

Let us be blunt about this: The only difference between the two situations, and the only reason the DFLers who rallied around one accused felon were prepared to boot the other, is that the former was a fellow Democrat and the latter a Republican.

Not long after I arrived in Minnesota, a wag told me that DFL stood for “Different For Liberals.” I think I see what he meant.