Dayton calls for resignations amid sexual harassment allegations

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KMSP) - Governor Dayton is speaking out against the sexual harassment allegations swirling around the State Capitol and calling for resignations.

As more harassment allegations surface against Sen. Dan Schoen, Dayton took the issue straight on with the senator.

"The extent of the allegations are true, and with enough confirmations, it's increasingly clear - very clear - that they are true; the only honorable thing to him to do is resign," Dayton said.  

The latest allegation comes from a Senate staffer, Ellen Anderson, who claims Schoen in 2015 sent her a Snapchat picture of male genitalia.

In a statement to the Senate Human Resources, Anderson wrote "I knew it crossed the line, but at the time, I assumed it was a one-time error in judgment. The disturbing news of the past week makes it clear that was not the case."

State Representative Erin Maye Quade revealed her own secrets last week to Fox 9 investigator Tom Lyden. She accused House Public Safety Chairman Tony Cornish of harassment in a series of text messages. 

Cornish says they comments were misunderstood.

"I have a reverence for my job, I love my job," he said.  

But for the first time, we're able to show Quade, who is gay, speaking in October at a Global Rights for Women Conference where she openly talked about her harassment at the Capitol.

“My colleagues so easily reduce my body to objectify, comment on, or a lesbian whose marriage is worth fetishizing over," she said.      

The accusations involve not just launching formal complaints, but also a great deal of soul-searching at the highest levels of government.

"I don't know how you prevent people from misbehaving, but there should be consequences. People should know the consequences, and they should be applied," she said.

The governor was talking about harassment across state government, not just in the legislature.

House Speaker Daudt has already stripped Representative Cornish of his Public Safety Committee chairmanship, and the house has vowed to make everyone go through harassment training during the first days of the next legislative session.