Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion is stepping down as the head of the Subcommittee on Ethics as he faces questions about a possible conflict of interest related to his legal work and funding bills he has sponsored. Champion will seek an advisory opinion from the ethics panel to determine if there is a conflict of interest. The move comes after a news report exposed his pro bono legal work for a client whose nonprofit later received state grant funds Champion helped authorize.
Champion maintains that there is no conflict of interest and that his legal work had concluded before the bill was introduced. He remains the chair of the Senate Jobs and Economic Development Committee but has stepped down from the ethics subcommittee chair position pending the investigation. The Senate Rules Committee has appointed Sen. Sandy Pappas as the new ethics subcommittee chair to conduct an investigation and provide an advisory opinion.
Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson called Champion’s decision to step down from the ethics committee a prudent move, while Majority Leader Erin Murphy stated that Champion will not be asked to step down from his other leadership positions at this time. The Senate will await the ethics committee’s assessment before making any further decisions regarding Champion’s roles within the Senate. Champion and Murphy did not comment on the situation as they left the Senate floor.
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