It was less than two weeks ago with the South Dakota’s Joint Legislative Procedure Committee slammed the brakes on an amendment that would bar legislators from having any sexual contact with pages and interns.
Only days later, a South Dakota legislator has been forced to resign over the revelations he’s had sexual contact with interns:
A South Dakota legislator who admitted having sexual contact with two interns resigned on Monday, saying he regretted his actions during the past two legislative sessions.
Republican Rep. Mathew Wollmann, 26, said last week that both interns were over age 21 and that the contact during the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions was consensual. But his colleagues voted to set up a committee to investigate his actions, and they were scheduled to meet Tuesday.
The revelations came about after a Pierre news station did a report about the legislature voting down the rule barring sexual contact with interns. Angered by the news, a former intern promptly reached out to the station. When they asked about his relationships, he asked them to turn off the camera, later proceeding with the interview:
"I do a lot of film for my personal work, as you know this is a working legislature, and in film there's called a character defining moment, it's when the character comes out and defines him or herself for the rest of the movie, so I'd like to proceed forward with the interview," Rep. Wollmann said.
"So have you had relationships with interns before?" Bennett asked.
"My first year in session here, I became close to one of the interns, to the point I thought about dating probably after session of course, and then again in 2016 session, the same, they were both people that I highly admire," he said. "Both of those sessions, I did have more than a personable relationship with interns."
So, there you have it. He thought about dating these young interns, he just … didn’t. I mean, why do that when a new batch gets served up every semester, amirite?
Yes, young Wollmann is closer in age to the interns than most legislators, but it’s still unacceptable in a professional capacity. They are there to learn the inner workings of local government, not be a personal dating pool for politicians, whatever age they might be.
Maybe the South Dakota legislature should reconsider that rule forbidding relationships with the interns? Maybe they would feel different if it were their own daughters working in the state house?