Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch resigned from her leadership post the day after fellow Republicans confronted her about allegations that she had an "inappropriate relationship" with a staff member.
"We're here today with a lot of humility and some sadness and even shock," interim Senate Majority Leader Geoff Michel said Friday at a hastily called Capitol news conference.
Koch, the state's first female majority leader, was widely considered a hard-working and savvy campaigner who helped Republicans win control of the Senate last year for the first time in four decades. Her sudden resignation stunned Republicans, ending one of the shortest tenures for a Senate majority leader since 1933. The move will reshuffle the Senate leadership a month before the legislative session and less than a year before a high-stakes 2012 election in which Democrats are vowing to win back control of the Senate and the GOP will campaign for a proposed constitutional amendment that would preclude gays from marrying.
Koch could not be reached for comment Friday. Michel and the others refused to identify the staffer by name.
Michel and other senators said they had heard from several staffers over the past two weeks that Koch was having a relationship with one of her direct subordinates. They said that when they confronted Koch on Wednesday night, she didn't admit to the relationship or deny it.
"Her response to the conversation was ...'I think I need to consider resigning,' " said Assistant Senate Majority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie.
However, Koch gave no indication she would do so right away.
Not long after the news conference, Michel announced that Michael Brodkorb, who was Koch's powerful communications chief, was no longer employed as a Senate staffer, effective Friday.