Luke Simons, Finally, Does the Decent Thing
MINOT, N.D. — After a week of bluster and much conspiracy-mongering, disgraced former lawmaker Luke Simons has announced that he won’t be taking his expulsion from the North Dakota House of Representatives to court.
The expulsion was approved by lawmakers last week after I obtained a file of harassment complaints against Simons that had been maintained by Legislative Council, and after I interviewed two of Simons’ fellow lawmakers, Rep. Emily O’Brien, R-Grand Forks, and Rep. Brandy Pyle, R-Casselton, about his conduct toward them.
In a lengthy, meandering statement replete with the same claims of false accusations and gotcha politics that have characterized Simons’ reaction to this scandal from the beginning, he admitted that his hopes of being reinstated to the Legislature are thin.
