Commentary by Tom Beckfeld on the
Sherburne County DFL website:
The Mark Olson Update!
When we last left Mark he was flush from victory having been elected to his 8th term. But less than a week later he was being released from the Sherburne County Jail, Charged with 2 counts of 5th degree assault after an alleged altercation with his wife. After a weekend in the drunk tank a tearful Olson seemed subdued and contrite. (A weekend in the drunk tank will do that to you). He begged forgiveness from his constituents, God and his wife in that order. God may have forgiven him but his wife had no objection to the six-month restraining order placed on Olson. His constituents have yet to be asked their opinion. Now three months later the subdued and contrite Olson is a thing of the past. Olson is now saying (through his lawyer - the 3rd since this began) that Heidi is to blame. “She was coming after him,” his lawyer said. “He was trying to control the situation.” While we can only speculate on Heidi’s motives, After viewing Olson’s long winded speeches on the House floor many a Representative understood Heidi’s need to throttle him, anything to get him to stop speaking. Olson said he hired his new lawyer to speed the process along. Mark is the first person I know of who hires a lawyer to increase the speed of anything. This speedy lawyer’s first action of Olson’s 4th court appearance was to ask for a new arraignment to start the process all over again. “Denied!” the judge said. Speedy lawyer then asked to delay the trial until after the legislative session in late May. Denied again, the Judge then offered three dates for Olson’s trial, March, April and May. Wanting to move the process ahead as quickly as possible Olson Jumped on May 9th. When questioned by reporters after the hearing Olson said he would try to get the date moved up. Yea sure. Clearly Olson is trying to delay this as much as possible to avoid the ethics hearing that’s sure to follow. Many of his former Republican colleagues have already called for his resignation should he be found guilty. The longer he delays the longer he receives that government check and the health insurance that goes with it. If he can get the House to delay until next session Olson will receive these benefits until next January and by then the whole matter will all have blown over.
How bad is he?
After Olson’s personal problems arose the House Republican caucus voted to kick Olson out of the Republican caucus. There wasn’t a single vote in his favor. In Olson’s 14 previous years of lackluster service he has offered few bills or amendments of any substance. This year without even Republican backing Olson may be at his most ineffective point ever. One can be reasonably sure that if Olson wants it, it won’t get done. That’s good news for those of us who like schools, transit, separation of church and state, lower property taxes and the like. It’s bad news for those of us who had hoped for someone to represent this district.
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