In his first year as House minority leader, state Rep. Marty Seifert has faced some tough moments.
Tense talks over the state budget. Criticism at home from Lyon County commissioners. Telling Republican House staff workers last year before Christmas they were being laid off because the GOP had lost the majority.
In context, that makes what he had to do this month seem not so tough — actually seem like the right thing to do.
In a story that broke this week, Seifert and the House Republican Caucus he leads voted to expel Rep. Mark Olson, R-Big Lake, from the GOP caucus after Olson was convicted on a domestic violence charge.
Olson had already been suspended after the case had gone to court, but the caucus took stricter action after the conviction.
"It's never easy to tell a guy you've served in the House with for 11 years that you're expelling him," Seifert said the other day. "It's never an easy thing to do stuff like this. But this was not as hard as telling good, hard-working people they weren't going to have a job or making budget decisions. This was tough, but it wasn't the worst thing.
" In fact, it was easy to justify.
Olson was convicted of misdemeanor assault against his wife.
The jury convicted him of causing his wife to fear of bodily harm after an much-publicized incident in which they collided and fell to the ground and he supposedly hit her with a Bible. The jury acquitted Olson of the more serious charge of intentionally harming or trying to harm his wife. The original charges said he knocked his wife to the ground three times.
Olson frequently talked about how he follows the Bible and stresses the importance of family values. Seifert said the criminal conviction points to some hypocrisy the GOP caucus simply couldn't be associated with.
"We certainly have a lot of concern in elected office — are we going to try to keep on a higher ground of ethics?" Seifert said. "If he had been acquitted, it would have been cut and dry (Olson would stay in the caucus). But he was convicted. He's going to appeal, so we put in the caveat that he could be reinstated if he's successful (with the appeal or on Election Day).
" For now, though, Olson is a convicted wife-assaulter. That alone made Seifert upset. He said he grew up in a peaceful household and lives in one now, and doesn't understand or tolerate domestic violence no matter how angry someone gets.
"People are bothered by the hypocrisy," Seifert said. "You can't have office-holders talking about family values and have a caucus member engage in domestic assault. It's hypocritical and feeds the cynicism people feel about politics.
" Olson is still in the House and can still call himself a Republican, but by being booted from the Republican caucus he loses all access to staff support and other privileges.
Seifert said Olson was angry when Seifert called him with the news, and Olson told the Twin Cities media Tuesday he will seek re-election — either as a Republican or a third-party candidate. He said he and his wife have reconciled and the issue shouldn't be as big as it is.
Seifert disagreed. "He may well win his seat again, but that doesn't mean I have to be part of it," Seifert said, speaking as the caucus leader. Seifert also contrasted the GOP's expulsion of Olson with the way the U.S. Senate has waffled over Republican Sen. Larry Craig's sex-related conviction, and how the state Senate DFL caucus responded to the DWI arrest of Senate
President James Metzen on the final day of the 2007 session. Metzen was also convicted and apologized. The DFL hasn't called for Metzen to be penalized legislatively, but has supported his treatment program. "That might be seen as a little different than domestic violence," Seifert said. "But he could have killed somebody (while driving drunk).
But people are saying if the DFL didn't do anything to Jim Metzen, why are the Republicans doing this to Mark Olson. "Well, we're not the Democrats ... when it comes to domestic violence, that's a big deal." The Republicans didn't rush to judgment, Seifert said, deliberating Olson's fate over long hours and waiting until the judicial process had run its course.
And this didn't help Olson, either: While Metzen apologized for his DWI arrest, Olson has hardly acknowledged he was wrong in the domestic assault incident, Seifert said. "I have never seen any sense of remorse from Mark Olson on this," Seifert said. "I've served with him for 11 years and I would have expected some sort of contrition. I haven't seen that at all.
" Seifert said the GOP has taken some heat that the expulsion could cost the party Olson's seat entirely. Or on the flip side, that it was a calculated GOP step to get rid of damaged goods and clear room for other possible candidates, including former secretary of state Mary Kiffmeyer.
Ultimately, though, something else overrode political concerns, Seifert said. "At some point, you have to say we've got to do what is right and take politics off the table," Seifert said. "This was right."
H/T Beyond Sound Bites and Headlines
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