Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, announced during a press conference on Feb.6, 2023, that she will serve as the next Senate majority leader. Photo by Senate Media Services.
Minnesota Senate Republicans confronted a nightmare scenario Tuesday: A member of their caucus was accused of propositioning a 17-year old girl who turned out to be an undercover law enforcement officer.
Their response thus far has been brutally cold toward their colleague — and highly effective.
Within hours, they spoke with one voice — and called for Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, to resign.
No hemming or hawing and nothing about hearing his side of the story. Like Paulie in “Goodfellas.”
“Now I’m gonna have to turn my back on you.”
By contrast, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, did not call on him to resign. In a passively constructed statement, she said the allegation is “deeply disturbing” and “raises serious questions that will need to be answered by the court, as well as his caucus and constituents.”
Senate Republicans knew Eichorn would quickly become a malignancy that needed swift excision.
The Eichorn story had politics and money for sex with a 17-year old.
And, hypocrisy, given the Republican Party’s frequent forays into sexual sanctimony, the president of the United States notwithstanding.
Charging documents released Wednesday suggested that Eichorn was familiar with the lingo of the commercial sex trade and ignorant of the law: “I think age of consent is 17 when do ya turn 18?” he texted the undercover officer, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Within hours, Senate Republicans were announcing they would move to expel Eichorn from the Senate.
“There is no question that these charges merit expulsion,” said Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, in a statement. “We owe it to the public to hold our members to the highest standards, and this violation of the public trust is so severe we must act. It is my hope that this quick resolution gives Sen. Eichorn time to focus on his family.”
They’ll need a two-thirds majority for expulsion, but Democrats up for reelection in 2026 surely won’t vote to allow Eichorn to continue to serve in a building that runs a prestigious junior page program for high school students and frequently hosts student tours. By Thursday night, many Democratic senators were releasing their own statements calling on Eichorn to resign.
The vote won’t be easy for Murphy, however.
Murphy, who was huddled with Democrats early Thursday deliberating, has to deal with Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, who was arrested last year on felony burglary charges when she tried to break into her stepmother’s home to retrieve some items that belonged to her deceased father, she told police.
Murphy has argued since Mitchell’s arrest that the Senate should not move to expel her until she’s received due process in the courts.
It was a convenient argument during the 2024 legislative session, when Democrats had a number of bills that needed Mitchell’s vote in the narrowly divided 34-33 upper chamber. Expelling Mitchell would have ended their advantage for the remainder of the session and stymied key legislation.
But the problem didn’t solve itself.
Mitchell refused to resign, despite Gov. Tim Walz and DFL Chair Ken Martin — though pointedly, not Murphy — calling on her to do so.
And, her case has dragged on; she won a motion in January to delay the trial until after this legislative session. Republicans tried to expel Mitchell earlier this year, which Democrats voted in unison to block.
So, Murphy has a few options, none of them very appealing:
She can stick to her stated principle and say an accused sex offender should continue to serve in the Senate because he’s not been convicted of anything.
Or, she can risk being called a hypocrite — who isn’t in politics? — and vote to expel Eichorn while continuing to defend Mitchell’s right to due process since the two cases are very different.
Or, she can move to expel both Eichorn and Mitchell, who will presumably be replaced by another Democrat, though it’s unclear when.
Given that the House is already divided 67-67, bipartisanship is required to pass anything anyway, which may lessen the weight of expelling Mitchell.
In any case, by acting quickly, decisively and collectively, Republicans will have cut off the malignancy in just two days.
Indeed, Senate Republicans didn’t just quickly liberate themselves from a political fiasco.
They created a new problem for Democrats, who will again face the Mitchell problem as soon as next week, when no doubt Republicans will move to expel her.
Perhaps Democrats have learned something this week about the value of ruthless excision of wayward colleagues.
Independent Journalism for All
As a nonprofit newsroom, our articles are free for everyone to access. Readers like you make that possible. Can you help sustain our watchdog reporting today?