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Ethics complaint targeting Senate President highlights long-term auditor complaint

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Published  April 11, 2025 4:17pm CDT
Politics
FOX 9

The Brief

    • Senate Republicans have filed an ethics complaint against Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, (DFL-Minneapolis). They accuse him of a conflict of interest in advocating for grants to Rev. Jerry McAfee's nonprofits.
    • Sen. Champion says he worked for free as an attorney for McAfee, as he often does for churches, so he didn't personally gain and didn't believe there was a conflict. But he did as the ethics committee for an advisory opinion days before the GOP filed its complaint.
    • The grant McAfee's nonprofit got in the last session highlights an issue auditors have brought up since at least 2007. They say it would be better if legislators sent all grants through a competitive process instead of doing any direct funding. But legislators haven't had the appetite to stop the so-called "pork barrel politics."

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A new ethics complaint from Senate Republicans accuses the Senate President of helping a controversial reverend who was also one of the senator’s legal clients.

Sen. Bobby Joe Champion (DFL-Minneapolis) had already asked for an advisory opinion, but the complaint highlights an issue auditors have complained about for a long time.

The meat of it

It’s pork:

Government funds are often directed by a legislator to their district for specific projects or programs.

Auditors don’t like it.

Legislators typically do, but now some grants are coming into question.

Center of attention

Complaint origin:

Sen. Champion sat next to Rev. Jerry McAfee earlier this month, looking for money to fund a violence interrupters program the city of Minneapolis had rejected a couple of weeks earlier.

21 Days of Peace won’t get any money this year, but Champion helped McAfee get a $3 million grant for a nonprofit last session.

Just before that session started, Champion did some work as an attorney for the nonprofit.

"We have a specific group that a legislator funds money to and they have connections, real close ties to him," said Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, (R-East Grand Forks). "We have some real concerns about that."

Champion says he did the work for free, so he didn’t personally gain and didn’t think there was a conflict of interest to disclose.

"Our conflict of interest rules cover situations that directly and financially benefit individual legislators," he said in a statement sent to FOX 9. "Because my work in this matter occurred in the past, and was unpaid, there was no potential conflict to disclose."

He has since asked the Senate ethics subcommittee for an advisory opinion.

Bigger issue?

Advice as old as the iPhone:

But the type of grant Champion got for McAfee has been on the minds of auditors for a long time.

"Our recommendation in 2007 was for the legislature to not name grantees in law period," Legislative Auditor Judy Randall said in February.

The legislature typically gives out about $500 million a year in grants and most of them go through a competitive process.

However, a lot of legislators feel like they know their districts and nonprofits the best, so they ask for direct funding.

And so far, any appetite to end that practice hasn’t chewed them up.

"We need a cultural change in the legislature about legislatively named grants," said Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove).

What's next:

The next Senate ethics subcommittee meeting is on April 22.

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