Minnesota State Senators Mark Koran (R-North Branch) and Senator Scott Newman (R-Hutchinson) today issued the following statement on the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct’s unanimous, bipartisan vote finding that Senator Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) committed multiple campaign finance violations:

“We are glad the Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct correctly and unanimously determined that Senator Fateh committed serious campaign finance violations. We know he received free political ads from Somali TV. We know he received illegal private contributions from a private business. We know he failed to report or record in-kind payments. These violations are inexcusable for a person with as much election and campaign experience as Senator Fateh possesses. The unanimous, bipartisan vote highlights the severity of the violations.

“We remain troubled by the inconsistencies in some of the statements made by Senator Fateh and others during testimony, but we look forward to the issue being referred to the Campaign Finance Board for further investigation as Chair Osmek suggested.”