Sen. Mitchell returns to Capitol as her arrest looms over session’s final weeks
Updated 5:17 p.m.
State Sen. Nicole Mitchell returned to the Capitol and cast votes on Monday, a week after a first-degree burglary charge threw her political career into doubt and threatened to upend her party’s session agenda.
She checked in as present as the Senate convened for the week and voted on several motions — including two that would have prohibited her from voting in the chamber. Last week, she didn’t appear in public. Mitchell declined to answer questions on Monday from reporters.
Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, faces pressure to clear up the circumstances around a reported break-in at a relative’s home. Republicans have called on her to resign.
Democrats have also moved to create some distance from her troubles, including moving her desk to a far corner of the chamber. A Senate DFL spokesperson said she was moved because her former desk neighbor is on a Senate ethics panel that is set to weigh an ethics complaint against Mitchell next week.
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Over the weekend, DFL leaders announced that Mitchell would be barred from caucus meetings and committee hearings following her arrest. She will still be able to vote during floor sessions.
Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said that Mitchell’s ability to participate remotely would be determined on a day-to-day basis. Murphy said the probe into Mitchell’s arrest and charging is ongoing.
Republicans in the chamber sought to block Mitchell from voting while that investigation continues. They said the charge is serious and that it should disqualify her from weighing in on legislation.
“This member accused of such a serious crime of violence should not be voting on the consequential essential votes that are coming before this body in the next three weeks,” said Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester.
Democrats didn’t defend the behavior or talk much about it. Instead they focused on the lack of precedent for stripping a senator of the right to vote prior to a conviction.
“So just saying for a few weeks we're going to disenfranchise all the voters of that district and not allow the duly elected senator to vote would be just as violative of the Constitution, as if we were to do that on a permanent basis short of due process authorized in the Constitution,” Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said.
Some DFL lawmakers, including Murphy, hugged Mitchell while she was in the chamber. GOP members steered clear. She kept her eyes fixed on her computer as Republican lawmakers spoke about the allegations against her.
Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, said after the Senate adjourned for the day that Mitchell being allowed to cast the difference-making vote on motions and a budget bill was a problem.
“She is making the deciding votes. She made the deciding vote on whether she should be voting today on the floor. I hope you saw the irony in that,” Johnson said. “To me, that was pretty extreme to allow her to even vote on that.”
He said Republicans won’t let the issue drop as the remaining session days tick away, saying it will come up “day in and day out.”
Murphy said Senate Republicans were trying to be “judge and jury” of a pending case when Mitchell is entitled to present a defense. She defended Mitchell’s vote on her own status. Of the possibility the session could get bogged down with repeat debates over Mitchell, Murphy said the Legislature’s work will get completed.
“At this time of the year, in every session, the minority party uses time to slow things down,” Murphy said.
Mitchell, a first-term lawmaker, a former broadcast meteorologist and member of the Air National Guard, was arrested last week at her stepmother’s home in Detroit Lakes.
According to a criminal complaint, she told police officers at the scene that she wanted to retrieve her late father’s ashes and other belongings. She has said that she and her stepmother aren’t speaking.
Mitchell is far from the only lawmaker to face legal trouble while in office. Five other sitting legislators have been arrested within the past five years, mostly on alcohol-related driving offenses.
But felony-level charges are rare, and the near-even state Senate only ups the stakes. Mitchell’s vote could be the difference between bills passing by a single vote and stalling on a tie vote. There is no tiebreaker vote in the Minnesota Senate.
Mitchell’s situation colored a separate debate Monday over gun storage in the House. Republicans opposed to the safe storage and stolen-gun reporting proposal peppered their speeches with references to the alleged break-in as reasons why gun owners need ready access to firearms. DFLers tried to shut down those comparisons, but they persisted.
The next court hearing in Mitchell’s case is scheduled for June 10.