Star Tribune
DFL leaders call for Rep. Jeff Dotseth to end re-election campaign
Top Democrats called for GOP state Rep. Jeff Dotseth to end his re-election campaign on Tuesday in response to a Star Tribune report that detailed past allegations of domestic abuse.
They also called on House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, to expel Dotseth from the House GOP Caucus.
Dotseth, a first-term lawmaker from Kettle River, was arrested in 2008 after his then-wife called police to report he’d assaulted her, according to court documents first reported by the Star Tribune on Monday. He was initially charged with misdemeanor domestic assault but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct several months later. A judge granted a yearlong order for protection barring Dotseth from contacting his then-wife and using or possessing firearms, and he was only allowed to have supervised visits with the 9-year-old daughter they shared.
“What we’ve learned about Rep. Dotseth’s past is beyond concerning,” House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, said at a news conference at the State Capitol. “Dotseth’s behavior, whether it was yesterday or years ago, is unacceptable and not fitting for an elected representative of our state.”
After Dotseth’s arrest, his then-wife, Penny Dotseth, filed a sworn affidavit along with her petition for divorce alleging Dotseth abused her repeatedly over the course of a decade of living together. Her adult son also filed an affidavit alleging Dotseth abused him when he was a child. They both said Dotseth punched, kicked, slapped and choked them over the years.
Dotseth denied the abuse allegations in his own 2008 divorce affidavit and again in a statement to the Star Tribune last week: “More than 15 years ago I went through an extremely difficult divorce and child custody dispute. There were hurtful allegations made against me that I deny, including a sworn affidavit I filed under oath under penalty of perjury,” he said in the statement.
Dotseth didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Rep. Jeff Dotseth greets staff as he arrives at the House chambers on the first day of the 2024 Minnesota Legislature session on Feb. 12, 2024. (Renée Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Demuth, who leads the House GOP Caucus, said in a statement last week that “domestic violence is an absolute red line for me — it’s never acceptable under any circumstances.” But, she said, “this case was resolved through the legal process more than 15 years ago, concluding with no charge or conviction for domestic assault.”
Emerald ash borer is just one of the invasive species destroying forests across the globe at a time when trees are desperately needed. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and clean the air, and are critical to combating climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Arborists are well aware that trees may be the best hope for staving off the worst effects of climate change, Zumach said.
“You have to believe that, with every tree there’s shade and energy savings and improved air quality,” she said.
To mitigate the harm of future disease, foresters in Minnesota try to plant a diverse array of species when replacing lost ash trees. The crew working Furness Parkway had about 20 varieties, Cleaver said, including linden trees, honey locusts, triumph elms, eastern larches and London plane trees.
As Carpenter and Cleaver finished planting the linden boulevard tree, they poured a 5-gallon bucket of water over the soil, which the tree quickly absorbed. They put mulch around the tree to protect the roots and prevent accidental maiming by mowing crews.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, suggested this week that it would have been better for the Democratic Party if President Joe Biden had abandoned his reelection campaign sooner and the party had then held a competitive primary process to replace him.
In an interview Thursday with the New York Times, Pelosi said what was widely reported around the time Biden dropped out: that she believed it was implicitly understood that his exit would be followed by an internal party competition for a new nominee, instead of an anointment of Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said during an interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a host of “The Interview,” a Times podcast. She added during the interview, “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”
Pelosi went on: “And as I say, Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened. And because the president endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”
Biden endorsed Harris within an hour after he ended his campaign in July, a decision he made only after an intense pressure campaign from Democrats that Pelosi quietly led. His support for the vice president, along with backing from many other Democrats, choked off any avenue for a challenger to emerge. Over two weeks, Harris swiftly gathered support from delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
While some Democrats floated the idea of a quick primary, those proposals never gained traction and were not embraced by the Democratic National Committee or convention delegates.
In the interview, Pelosi went to great lengths to defend the Biden administration’s legislative accomplishments, most of which took place during his first two years, when she was the House speaker. After Republicans won control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, she relinquished her leadership post but remained in the chamber as an eminence grise for the party.
The former speaker, who was elected Tuesday to her 20th term representing San Francisco, argued in the interview that the Democratic Party still stood up for working-class voters on economic issues.
Eagan authorities are asking residents to stay vigilant after two sexual assaults at Lebanon Hills Regional Park.
The Eagan Police Department said a woman was attacked while walking alone on one of the park’s trails around 11 a.m. on Nov. 7. Her assault follows a “similar incident” near the same location on Sept. 7, but that victim got away from the suspect. No arrests have been made.
“The Eagan Police Department and Dakota County Sheriff’s Office have increased patrol activity in and around the Lebanon Hills Regional Park,” a news release said. “We are actively working on leads in both cases, therefore this is an open/active investigation, so no further information will be released.”
While investigators search for suspects, police asked residents to remain cautious by: walking in pairs or groups, staying aware of their surroundings, avoiding poorly lit areas and staying in populated areas, and reporting suspicious activity to 911.
