Republican Minnesota state Rep. Walter Hudson is one of the three local lawmakers planning to testify next week at a House Oversight Committee hearing on alleged fraud in the state.
He hopes the hearings raise awareness of the fraud problem on a national scale, but with a bit more focus than flair.
“What we’ve seen in the past few days in the wake of the Nick Shirley video is a lot of sensationalism from a lot of different angles and attempts to turn this into a partisan boxing match, when a point of fact, just a few months ago, this was a very bipartisan issue,” Hudson said.
He referenced how, back in May, the DFL-controlled state Senate passed a bill to establish the Office of Inspector General to prevent and find fraud in state spending. The bill had overwhelming bipartisan support, passing 60-7.
“For some reason between then and now, it’s broken down into these partisan corners of the boxing ring. And my hope is that the outcome from next week’s meeting will be drive it back towards nuance and perspective and getting serious about tackling a problem,” Hudson said.
Although Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Ellison aren’t required to attend, Hudson feels it’s in their best interest to testify and share their side of the story.
“If the things that the governor has been claiming about his efforts to get ahead of this, as he puts it, are true and merited, then that’s something that the American people should know. And he should view this as a great opportunity to break through the noise of what’s been being said over the past few weeks in order to set the record straight as he sees it,” Hudson said.
Walz testified before the House Oversight Committee last summer on Minnesota’s immigration policies. It led to some tense exchanges with lawmakers, including Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer.
With Walz’s run for a third term looming, political experts believe the scrutiny from his critics in Congress could hurt his campaign.
“You’re going to have a lot of members of Congress, Republicans, who are going to use this as an opportunity to basically go after him,” said David Schultz, a professor of political science at Hamline University. “It’s probably not worth it for him. Also, I’m not sure he’s in a good position being able to provide credible explanations regarding the allegations of fraud.”
Jeff Wagner
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