Senate Ethics Hearing Set on Goodwin Tweet Gripe

A Minnesota Senate subcommittee will meet at 1:30 p.m. Monday to hear the ethics complaint on behalf of Sen. Barb Goodwin about a colleague's tweet. The UpTake will carry live, streaming video of the hearing.

Goodwin (DFL-50) demanded an apology after Sen. Gretchen Hoffman (R-10) May 18 claimed in a Twitter message that Goodwin had applied derogatory terms to mentally ill people during a floor speech:

#Sen Goodwin just called people with mental illness- idiots and imbeciles- while debating HHS bill #offensive #mndfl #mnsrc #mnleg

Goodwin used the terms in reference to what state mental hospitals used to be called—"Institutions for Idiots and Imbeciles and the Insane"—as part of a debate over the state's budget for health and human services.

Hoffman didn't apologize and has not deleted her tweet. (Two others—state Republican Party Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb and state Rep. Kirk Stensrud (R-42A)—retweeted Hoffman's message but later deleted their retweets.)

On May 20, Sen. Ann Rest with the Senate Rules Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct—the same committee that last year scolded Satveer Chaudhary, Goodwin's DFL predecessor as senator from Senate District 50.