Lawmakers and more than a dozen people who have spoken with MinnPost say the sexual harassment allegations recently made against Minnesota lawmakers — DFL state Sen. Dan Schoen and GOP Rep. Tony Cornish — may just be the beginning: There are years worth of pent up allegations from people involved in state politics and government that have either gone unreported or unaddressed.
On Thursday, Gov. Mark Dayton and leaders of the Democratic party called on Schoen to resign in the wake of accusations by multiple women. Hours later, Cornish was suspended from his committee chairmanship over allegations that he sent inappropriate texts to a fellow lawmaker and made repeated sexual advances toward a lobbyist.
Both lawmakers have denied the allegations, saying their actions have been taken out of context. Schoen is refusing to resign, meaning legislators could be dealing with the accusations against him and a possible ethics complaint well into the 2018 session.
Since MinnPost first revealed the allegations on Wednesday, political leaders have engaged in a battle of political statements, arguing over who was ultimately responsible for reporting and addressing claims and following through on actions, a back-and-forth that’s revealed the limited ability of House and Senate leaders to address sexual harassment by legislators, who — as elected officials — can’t be fired.
But the allegations, and their fallout, are forcing Capitol players to reckon with what could potentially be a much larger issue: a long-festering, not-so-hidden problem with sexual harassment in Minnesota politics — a matter that’s affected people at all levels of government, from House and Senate interns and staff to lobbyists and sitting lawmakers.
‘That’s a good door-knocking ass’
One of the women to first come forward with allegations about Schoen was Lindsey Port. In August of 2015, Port, then a first-time candidate for the Legislature, went to an event in downtown Minneapolis as part of three days of meetings for the Democratic National Committee. That’s where she said Schoen, then a DFL representative in the House, came up from behind her and grabbed her buttocks, before remarking: “Yep, yep, that’s a good door-knocking ass.”
Another woman who reported harassment by Schoen is Rep. Erin Maye Quade, a DFL House member from Apple Valley, who said Schoen started texting her in late 2015, shortly after she announced her campaign for the House. Schoen invited her out to drinks multiple times, and then invited her over for dinner. She declined. Later, he invited her again, saying his children weren’t home. That was followed by text that was “clearly meant for someone else.”
“I almost got her,” it said, according to Maye Quade. “Working on her pretty hard, but I almost got her.”
A third woman, who asked not to be identified, said Schoen sent her a photo of male genitalia over Snapchat.
Schoen, who served two terms in the House and is now a first-term senator from St. Paul Park, was aware of each incident but said in a subsequent statement that the allegations are “either completely false or have been taken far out of context. It was never my intention to leave the impression I was making an inappropriate advance on anyone.”
“I feel terrible that someone may have a different interpretation of an encounter, but that is the absolute truth,” Schoen’s statement continued. “I also unequivocally deny that I ever made inappropriate contact with anyone.”
He has hired an attorney ahead of any potential ethics investigation. Schoen, who is also a police officer for the City of Cottage Grove, has been put on administrative duties pending a state investigation.
‘I got busted for staring at you … Haha’
Maye Quade also showed MinnPost text messages sent to her from Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, who chairs the House Public Safety Committee. After finishing a speech, Maye Quade looked at her phone to see a text from Cornish saying: “Just got an anonymous text saying I got busted for staring at you on the House floor … Haha,” Cornish texted. “I told him it was your fault, of course. Look too damned good. Ha. I must be more gentlemanly when I run for governor.”
The Star Tribune and MPR News also reported that an unnamed lobbyist has said Cornish repeatedly asked to have sex more than three dozen times, including during an encounter in his office. Late Thursday night, Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt suspended Cornish from his chairmanship of the House Public Safety and Security Policy and Finance Committee pending further review of sexual harassment claims. Cornish did not respond to a request seeking comment.
“The allegations of sexual harassment against Rep. Tony Cornish are extremely troubling. I have shared the reports with the House Director of Human Resources as prescribed by our Policy against Discrimination and Harassment,” Daudt said in a statement. “In addition, I spoke with Rep. Cornish and told him that his reported actions were inappropriate and unacceptable as a member of our caucus and the Legislature.”
‘We’ve learned how to survive’
In conversations with MinnPost, numerous women who work at the Capitol say that the kind of behavior alleged of Schoen and Cornish isn’t a surprise, or even that unusual. One woman, who was watching the response from top leaders to sexual harassment allegations, told MinnPost she was “surprised how surprised everyone is.”
Women who work at the Legislature say they feel particularly vulnerable and without recourse at the Capitol, a place that has long been dominated by men and where effectiveness is largely built on relationships. Many fear retribution for speaking out about harassment. Female lawmakers fear their bills won’t be heard in committees or their positions won’t be taken seriously, while staffers and lobbyists worry it could harm their reputations or mark them as someone who can’t take a joke.
To get by, women who work at the Capitol said they’ve developed something of a code they share among themselves: the men who are known to regularly cross the line with women; those to avoid getting into an elevator with alone; who not to schedule one-on-one meetings with; what bars or hangouts to stay away from, places where legislators are known to drink.
“We’ve learned how to survive, and that’s how we do our job,” one woman who works in the Capitol told MinnPost.
“Those [men] who do it operate with a sense of entitlement that’s really disturbing,” said another woman, who has spent years in the Capitol in various roles, including as a staffer and a lobbyist. “And they are very aware of the power dynamic in which they have the upper hand, and they use it freely.”
DFL Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, a first-term member from Roseville who previously worked as a staffer in the House, said the burden has been on women to “live with and manage this type of behavior.”
Maye Quade, who is openly gay and married to a woman, says that has often felt that her sexuality and appearance were of particular fascination to her male colleagues, especially to male Republican lawmakers. In one incident at a bar, she said, a fellow legislator told her: “Hey Maye Quade, we have something in common: We both like to fuck hot women.’”
In another incident, Maye Quade said, she was speaking on the House floor when she heard two legislators behind her loudly discussing the fact that she’s gay. One of the legislators said it was a shame, a waste of her body.
An unclear process
In 2015, both Port and Maye Quade reported the incidents with Schoen to Rep. Erin Murphy, who was then the House DFL deputy minority leader. Murphy reported both incidents to the House DFL executive director and eventually to DFL House Minority Leader Paul Thissen.
Thissen said he met with Schoen and “made it clear that such conduct was unacceptable for a member of the House and a member of the DFL Caucus. I emphasized that such behavior must stop.
“No further incidents were communicated or reported to me or to House leadership staff,” Thissen said. “I also considered it important to respect the privacy of the individual who reported the behavior.”
Thissen, however, did not know there were more incidents with other women.
Maye Quade and other DFL legislators said they also reported the comments made about Maye Quade’s sexuality and appearance to House leadership. “In my role as Minority Leader, I have spoken to the Speaker many, many times about gender discrimination and sexual harassment at the Minnesota House of Representatives,” said DFL Minority Leader Melissa Hortman. “I have discussed both members’ concerns about the general atmosphere as well as members’ concerns about specific instances.”
Hortman recently released a confidential email between her and Daudt from May 19 asking the speaker to take “immediate action to instruct your members on what is and what is not sexual harassment and to take steps to stop sexual harassment that is occurring.”
Early this year, Daudt said he was approached by Hortman and Republican Majority Leader Joyce Peppin about general concerns about the work environment in the Minnesota House, but he was not “made aware of specific complaints and names of those responsible despite repeated requests for information in that meeting.”
“Leader Hortman’s recommended course of action included asking me to speak to my caucus about what is and what is not sexual harassment, which I did. I asked her to do the same and I assume she has done so,” Daudt continued. “It was my understanding at the time this satisfactorily addressed Leader Hortman’s concerns which we took very seriously.”
Early next year when session convenes, members of the House and Senate will receive mandatory sexual harassment training, Daudt said, a change that was in the works before the scandal broke open. But that doesn’t address issues with the policy itself, which features a loose chain of responsibility when it comes to reporting claims and doesn’t include language to make sure complaints are followed up on.
According to the House sexual harassment policy, reports of harassment should be reported “to any House supervisor,” including the speaker, majority leader, minority leader or directly to human resources. Anyone receiving a complaint must report it to human resources or the House Employment Law Counsel, according to the policy.
When it comes to resolving a complaint, there are plenty of options if the person involved is an employee of the Legislature, including requiring the person to issue an apology, suspension or termination. But when it comes to a sitting legislator, the policy says: “Disciplinary action involving members of the House will be handled by Leadership or pursuant to the Rules of the House.”
Neither the House or Senate rules even mention the word sexual harassment, however. Both lay out a process to deal with behavior that is considered below the “decorum” or expectations of House and Senate members. One possible remedy includes a vote of expulsion, which requires a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate. The chambers also have ethics committees, which are equally divided between Republicans and Democrats and can receive and investigate complaints.
In response to the allegations against Schoen, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said “this is clearly behavior that brings the Senate into disrepute,” adding: “We have an ethics process in place that might need to be utilized if Sen. Schoen doesn’t resign.”
But some have suggested that process is deeply flawed, that complaints languish because the politically divided panel can’t agree how to proceed.
In a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton and top legislative leaders Friday, Port, Maye Quade and Becker-Finn recommended creating a task force on sexual harassment that would establish better systems for reporting and making recommendations around sexual harassment.
“We ask that you appoint a bipartisan group of experts in sexual harassment, human resources, public sector employment law, and employee focused employment law who will make a set of recommendations to the legislature that addresses this important workplace issue,” they wrote.
The ‘tip of the iceberg’?
The allegations in Minnesota comes amid increasing awareness of and focus on sexual harassment across the country, attention set off when two dozen women spoke out about years of sexual harassment and assaults at the hands of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. In the wake of those allegations, women and men — using the hashtag #MeToo — started telling their stories of harassment by people in positions in power.
Statehouses have become a prominent locus of such stories. In California, more than 200 women involved in politics signed a letter exposing what they called a “pervasive” culture of sexual harassment at the Capitol in Sacramento. In Florida, a legislator was stripped of his powers as the state’s budget chief over harassment allegations, and in Illinois, a top Democratic legislator was removed from his leadership position after a woman reported that he had sexually harassed her.
In Minnesota, one prominent female lawmaker said the reported allegations are just the “tip of the iceberg,” but that many women still live in fear of retribution if they speak out. Others hope the allegations will start to change attitudes and behaviors in St. Paul, where harassment and sexism had gone unchecked for so long.
Kari Dziedzic, a three-term DFL senator from Minneapolis, was part of a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit against Norm Green, the former owner of the NHL’s North Stars. As Green’s former executive assistant, she alleged that he would shake females to see if they were wearing a bra, and that he would kiss female employees and demand kisses in return.
“Twenty-five years ago I did not imagine we would still be having this same conversation in 2017,” she said. “I hope 25 years from now we are still not having this conversation.”
“Women who have experienced sexual harassment don’t want to be labeled a troublemaker, be told to ‘loosen up and learn to take a joke’ or lose our jobs — we just want to do our job,” she said. “The #MeToo social media campaign put a spotlight on the problem and now is the time to take action to make sure we have respectful workplaces where harassment is no longer tolerated.”
Baby steps
Glad that the dialogue has been opened in Minnesota. My hope is that it will soon be expanded to those who are more vulnerable than even the legislators themselves to these egregious abuses of power. My concerns lies with young staffers, campaign aides, interns, volunteers, and citizen lobbyists. While these folks are bright and idealistic they can easily be put at the mercy of electeds who can control the path to influence, jobs, and legislative progress. Any changes made at the Capitol need to include approaches that will allow these folks to seek protection and redress without loss to their futures.
Not surprising
Many women have experienced some level of sexual harassment. Some of us recognize the tells that often mean that the allegations are true. For example, the “she must have misunderstood me” or “taken out of context” defense that regular sexual harassers use. I remember one time in high school after a band concert, one of my friends’ dad was staring at my chest while her mom and my mom were talking. I was sure of it. Absolutely sure. So sure, I said something out loud right there and then. He denied it–he was “just staring off.” This made me doubt myself and embarrassed everyone at the time, but I still, in the back of my mind knew. Later, I found out he was raping his daughter. Yeah, he wasn’t “staring off.”
Sadly, that wasn’t the last time I’ve been sexually harassed by someone, or even the worst. I’ve been called terrible names for having an opinion as a woman. I’ve been in the presence of a stranger in public masturbating while staring at me. I’ve been fortunate enough that I haven’t had to deal with rape, but probably mostly because I learned early on to be very, very guarded and distrustful. I can name at least two women that have been raped, though. And that’s only because they told me.
To put this into context, I’m not a particularly powerful person, or meek either, or extraordinarily beautiful. I don’t dress scantily or flirt. This is not about my behavior. And I don’t have to deal with particularly powerful or ambitious men–men who would have power over me and lots of other women, or have narcissistic tendencies. If I have had to deal with as much sexual harassment as I have, it is not surprising at all that women whose jobs depend on how men perceive them (such as actresses), or women who work with men in positions of power (such as political figures), are regularly harassed and worse. To add insult to injury, the everyday stuff that might not technically rise to sexual harassment (“you should smile” from strangers on the street) gets pushed off onto us as a flaw on our part–why DON’T we just smile? Because it’s my own body and I don’t flipping WANT to smile. And, based on past experience, if I do, they’ll use it as an excuse for escalating the harassment. “She was smiling at me. Obviously, she didn’t mind (or she wanted it).”
Ms. Kahler
Thank you for sharing your story with us.
Well put
O for all the deniers out there, the ones who cannot stop and listen to those of us who’ve experienced these behaviors that men are allowed for much of our lives, to actually hear what we’ve been saying. Things may then begin to change.
WHY do they ALL completely deny?????????
That is so odd. So curious. It must be part of that segment of the population’s inherent make up:(
Some excellent and well-worded posts and examples above.
And yes, it is not about what one wears or how one comports oneself. Ever.
It is all about perceived senses of power and the feeling of superiority of males over females.
Many years ago, when much younger, I worked at a male-dominated company, and then a male-dominated state agency comprised of primarily male engineers and this type of behavior was common place. They all felt they were ‘gods’ and could do whatever they wanted to, whenever they wanted to. The rest of the employees were all lesser beings to them. It was bizarre and uncomfortable, to say the least. I got way more attention that I ever wanted, the majority of it unwanted. And yes, if you resisted or (God forbid) spoke up, you got blackballed and your career was impacted….
With so many women still being the prominent ‘child raisers’, one way to start to effect change is to raise our children differently than in the past. The girls must grow up knowing and feeling that they are just as smart and talented as the boys and can do whatever jobs they want. The boys need to accept this from a young age so when they reach adulthood they understand that females are their equal partners.
Worldwide, things are so much worse for so many. Education for all children is an absolute must. Small business loans for women so they can have livestock or buy business supplies and earn incomes is vital. No one succeeds in life when they are uneducated, or made to feel like a lesser being. And women should never have to bear the brunt of the load. doing so much more for the family yet being assigned a lesser status.
Raising the kids differently
For a girl to both know and feel that her intelligence, talents and skills will be valued and not undermined because of her gender is definitely part of it. And when a boy is shielded from facing meaningful consequences for actions that harm rather than help, the result of not allowing him to learn from his mistakes can have a negative impact down the road, whether it’s keeping a job or sustaining an intimate relationship. It hurts boys too.
Consequences
What to do with these spoiled little boys who wear suits and think they are junior Hugh Hefners? The only thing that will work are consequences, fitting what they did. If it was sexual assault, then criminal charges and an expulsion vote? If it is sexual harassment without actual physical contact, an ethics hearing with various consequences including loss of leadership position and suspension without pay?
Simply write a new policy with teeth and enforce it. If the legislator is found to have threatened a woman to keep her silent, add the sort of extra penalties one sees when a weapon is used to commit a crime.
Offer sensitivity training if you wish, but don’t expect it to change the behavior of any politician who considers himself immune from the law and has no history of accepting responsibility for his actions. Those folks will harass or cover up the harassment until removed from their position of authority. That is the lesson of the priest pedophiles and their protectors.
Thanks to MinnPost for bringing this into the open. Constructive, specific must be taken. The behavior described is wrong and must stop.
Sexual harassment and assault
At last.
Oh, the lessons that will be learned…
Lose the losers, enforce the harassment policies and get back to work, legislators!! Session is right around the corner, and maybe some work can be accomplished with the harassers out of the picture. Thanks to all who have shared their stories. No one should have to endure this kind of behavior in order to perform their work and earn their paycheck. What a waste of productivity! Go ahead and lawyer up, Cornish and Schoen. I laughed when I read your excuses for your behavior. They will not stand up in court–the court doesn’t care what your “intentions” were–just joking, being the class clown or behavior taken out of context. The IMPACT of the behavior on the person receiving it is what takes precedence. Plus, the people you harassed all have documentation–tweets, emails, etc. to expose you. And, you can’t get out of it by saying it was consensual because with both your track records, who do you think is going to be believed? Swift, concise consequences are the cure.
At the risk of mansplaining
OK, so I’m going to put a helmet on and go ahead and say this:
A little over a year or so ago I and progressives like myself male and female were locked in battle with some other people over certain candidates running for the Democratic nomination. One the progressive complaints was/is that almost all of the liberal projects from environmentalism to feminism have stalled or even rolled backwards during the reign of neoliberal control of the the Democratic Party.
In particular regarding feminism I echoed the voices of radical feminist who have been pointing out the fact that the rise of some celebrity women, i.e. wealthy CEO’s, Secretaries of State, Media Moguls, etc. has not translated into significant gains for women more broadly, specially in the US which is currently ranked 45th (BELOW Nicaragua and Mozambique) in terms of the gender equity gap.
So now we have this avalanche of revelations regarding sexual harassment, assault, and hostility from women (and others) in virtually every walk of life, profession, and age group. I think this underscores the stalled progress of the last four decades. Why did it take almost 60 years to get from Billy Jean King stomping a male chauvinist on a tennis court to women feeling empowered enough to reveal sexist assaults and hostility in the work place and elsewhere?
We can better than this. We must do better than this.
When He Runs for Governor?
“When you run for governor” Rep. Cornish?
How I wish you were the Republican nominee for governor so I would have a chance to reject your loutish behavior at the ballot box.
Please interview
Senator Pappas and former Representative Kahn and get their thoughts and what they have done over the years to help this appalling situation.
In the Cornish case
Let us not forget that Cornish proudly announces how he is always carrying ‘heat.’ So his is more than ‘male power’ intimidation. This aspect of the Cornish threat has not even been hinted at. May the writers tgat matter shine some light on the Cornish gun.
harassment
how many men report sexual harassment in the workplace? nada. it’s not about sex. it’s about exerting power over someone else. this issue came into focus in the late 80s or early 90s. it’s waaaay overdue to stop being an issue.
Well . . .
According to the EEOC, about 17% of all sexual harassment cases it sees are brought by men. Harassment can be crude comments or catcalls (“Hey, fa**ot!”) by men directed towards other men. That kind of power imbalance can exist among men, too.
It’s still true that vast majority of claims are brought by women.