Senate GOP wants Chaudhary inquiry

Posted at 4:25 PM on May 20, 2010 by Tim Pugmire
Filed under: MN Legislature

Republicans in the Minnesota Senate says they want an ethics panel to look into Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, DFL-Fridley, and his push for new fishing regulations on a northern Minnesota lake where he owns a cabin.

The GOP caucus today stopped short of filing a complaint with the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct, but instead requested an advisory recommendation. During the final days of the session, Chaudhary pressed the House author of a fish and game bill to add a provision just before its passage. He insist the move had no personal benefit. But during a Capitol news conference, Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, said he's not so sure.

"That could potentially have some impact on the value of property on the lake, the value of the lake as a fishing lake," Hann said. "I don't know. I think that's a question that to me is appropriate for the committee to decide whether or not that constitutes a significant financial or potential financial benefit that should be disclosed in some more formal way than what we think actually occurred."

Sen. Chaudhary says he made a mistake pushing for the fishing restrictions on Fish Lake Reservoir because he wrongly believed other lake residents supported the move.

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