Senator regrets fish legislation

Posted at 11:05 AM on May 20, 2010 by Tim Pugmire
Filed under: MN Legislature

State Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, DFL-Fridley, said he made a "major league screw up" when he pushed for legislation to restrict fishing on the northern Minnesota lake where he owns a cabin.

Chaudary pressed the House author of a fish and game bill to add the provision just before its passage last week. The language directs the DNR to take additional steps to protect the fish population on Fish Lake Reservoir in St. Louis County. Chaudary said he received some bad information that other lake residents wanted the measure.

"It turns out that that information that I got was completely wrong ,and it was a bad mistake that I made," Chaudhary said. "And I'm going to have to correct it."

In a phone interview today, Chaudhary said he saw no personal benefit in the bill.

"Usually politicians are accused of lining their pockets with something," Chaudhary said. "The only something in this case would be crappies, which doesn't make any sense to me. It really was just an honest belief that the community was all in favor of this. And that was definitely my error."

Chaudhary said he plans to hold a public meeting tonight at an area resort to apologize to residents. He said he will work next session to repeal the directive.

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