Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R- East Grand Forks) released the following response to DFL Chair Ken Martin’s statement calling for Sen. Nicole Mitchell to resign:

“Without new evidence or information in the accusations against Sen. Mitchell, this statement from DFL Chair Ken Martin is a clear admission Democrats were so desperate to pass their highly partisan agenda they were willing to use votes of an alleged burglar to do it.

“Democrats abused their political majority and embraced Sen. Mitchell because it served their political purposes instead of working in a bipartisan way for Minnesotans. Anyone paying attention could see this coming – now that they no longer need her vote, they are ready to cast her aside.

“This shameless pursuit of political power is not what Minnesotans deserve from their elected leaders.”