Minnesota Senate panel convenes ethics hearing into Sen. Mitchell's burglary arrest

A Senate ethics showdown Tuesday could help determine what will be accomplished in the remaining two weeks of the 2024 legislative session now overshadowed by the first-degree burglary charges against DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell.

It's unclear what, if anything, the ethics subcommittee will do beyond convening for a rare session to consider the complaint against Mitchell filed after she was arrested at the home of her estranged stepmother in Detroit Lakes on April 22. Eleven Republicans signed the document, including Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks.

The complaint alleges Mitchell violated multiple rules of Senate conduct and asks that the ethics panel "work expeditiously to review the circumstances of this complaint and recommend discipline to the Rules Committee." The Republicans said the ethics panel should look into the circumstances of Mitchell's entry into her estranged relative's home and her public statements in the aftermath of her arrest, and then recommend appropriate disciplinary action.

Mitchell returned to the Senate floor last week, a week after her arrest, and has been voting on bills over the strenuous objections of Republicans. Her arrest opened a gaping partisan divide in the Senate and called into question the ability of the Senate to take bipartisan action on tougher bills from an Equal Rights Amendment to gun safety measures and the legalization of sports betting.

The first-term senator from Woodbury has already faced consequences. The DFL dismissed Mitchell from caucus meetings and stripped her of committee assignments. But she continues to vote as the Senate is divided 34-33 and her vote can be determinative for the DFL majority.

The ethics panel's agenda doesn't provide a detailed plan for the meeting beyond consideration of the complaint against Mitchell and another complaint filed in April 2023 by Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, against Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen, R-Glencoe.

Maye Quade's complaint faulted Gruenhagen for violating the norms of the Senate by emailing to DFL Senate listserv "videos documenting mutilating transgender surgeries on minor children."

"There has to be a line and he jumped so far over it," Maye Quade said a year ago in an interview.

It's unclear whether Mitchell or Gruenhagen will testify. But Mitchell's felony burglary charge is pending in Becker County District Court. Gruenhagen faces no other complaint beyond the Senate filing.

The ethics panel has a range of options from doing nothing to dismissal to a determination of probable cause for further investigation. The panel is evenly split with two Democrats and two Republicans. To take action, at least three committee members must agree, meaning the vote must be bipartisan.

Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, is the chair of the subcommittee. The other DFL member is Sen. Mary Kunesh of New Brighton. The GOP members are Sens. Andrew Mathews of Princeton and Jeremy Miller of Winona.

The ethics panel met briefly last year to consider the Gruenhagen complaint and others, but deferred acting until after the legislative session ended. The other complaints were eventually dismissed and the committee did not meet again on the Gruenhagen complaint until now.