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GOP legislator axed by his own party

If this isn’t a man-bites-dog story, it’s certainly a dog-bites-dog story.

“The GOP-controlled North Dakota House of Representatives voted 69-25 to expel one of its members over sexual harassment allegations,” after the North Dakota Legislative Council released 14 pages of complaints against him, The HIll reported on Thursday, March 4, 2021 (read story here).

The subject of their ire, GOP Rep. Luke Simons, squawked like a plucked chicken, claiming he was denied due process and blaming his accusers for “twisting his words.”1/ This being “the first time in North Dakota’s history that a lawmaker was removed from the state’s legislature,” I’m naturally curious how he earned the indignity of being a Republican legislator kicked out of a GOP-dominated legislature by his fellow Republicans. Apparently they have standards of some sort, which is unusual for a Republican-run body.2/

The Bismarck Tribune reported (here) that Simons was “embroiled in sexual harassment allegations made by female legislative staff, interns and fellow representatives.” That’s pretty much everybody, so it appears he allegedly harassed every female within his sight.

You also can safely assume this included some of the GOP female legislators who voted to rid themselves of him.

You wouldn’t be wrong. The Associated Press says (here), “Republican Rep. Emily O’Brien said his harassment was so pervasive that she switched desks to get away from him. The AP added these additional details: He’s 43, married, has 5 children, and is a rancher and barber.

Figuring the 14 pages would make juicy reading, I searched the internet for it, but at first only came up with the House Resolution to expel Simons. 3/ However, after further diligent searching, I found a TV news story (here) that helpfully provided a link to those documents (peruse them here), which apart from the necessary redactions (mostly names), is as lurid as you could hope for.

For example,

“On Tuesday, November 13, 2018, Representative Luke Simons visited my office. … During a discussion about Chapter 36-21.2 the following exchange occurred: He said: ‘What does immune from liability mean, like if you were in a car accident and I came upon the scene and you were lying on the side of the road, if I took your shirt off to administer aid to a wound I wouldn’t be guilty of sexual harassment.’ I said: ‘That is an inappropriate example.’ He said: ‘Oh ya, I took it too far.’ The discussion continued relating to livestock: He said: ‘The call was about a thoroughbred horse in the ditch, you know thoroughbreds, they just have
that hungry look in their eye, like some women. Quarter horses are bred to be sweet and kind and made for the job, kind of like my wife, she is definitely like a quarter horse but she has a little thoroughbred in her. … He again said: ‘Sorry, I got off topic.'”

Last month, top state House Republicans called for him to resign, and said if he didn’t, they would “weigh all options, including expulsion” (read that story here). He didn’t take the hint, so they did what they said they would do.

Expulsions from legislative bodies are rare, even though sexual harassment unfortunately isn’t, because most people know when their goose is cooked and choose to make a graceful exit. I could name examples, some of them Democrats, e.g. ex-Sen. Al Franken.

What you don’t see in this case is the alleged offender hitting on Democratic women, probably figuring he wouldn’t get anywhere with them. He did, however, blame his predicament on “liberals on legal staff,” 4/ i.e., blame the liberals lawyers, as you expect any normal Republican caught with his pants down, or his hand in the cookie jar, to say. There was also an incident in which he cussed out a colleague for asking him to wear a mask in the cafeteria, 5/ which is also a pretty common Republican thing.

I didn’t have an opportunity to interview his wife to find out what she thinks of all this. In fact, I’m not sure he still has a wife.

Photo: Rep. Simons appears to be leering at someone, but he probably just got a repaving appropriation for a road in his district, or something like that.

Footnotes

  1. This blog believes in due process, so you can read his defense here, if you’re so inclined. In his own defense, Simons said (here) he’s “been accused of being flirtatious all of my life,” so, you know, maybe he has been. (This is similar to what the law refers to as “a statement against interest.” You can look up what that means here.)
  2. Read them here. Note the date: November 2018, well after the first complaints against Simons, which go back at least to March 2018. So you might call this “The Luke Simons-inspired code of conduct.”
  3. Read the explusion resolution here.
  4. See p. 9 of the documents.
  5. Read about that incident here.

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