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Minnesota Sen. The ill-treatment of Amy Klobuchar against the staff of her office began more than ten years ago and eventually aroused such concerns that in 2015, the leader of the minority then at the Senate, Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Spoke to him privately and told him to change his behavior. confirmed to HuffPost.
Klobuchar, a Democrat who wants to announce if she is running for president at a rally in Minneapolis on Sunday, had difficulty hiring campaign aides because of her history of abuse to the staff.
A Reid spokesperson said that the retired senator preferred not to discuss private conversations he had had with other senators. In this case, Reid does not remember either that he had this discussion with Klobuchar, the spokesman said.
"Sen. Klobuchar is one of the brightest and most dedicated Senate members, and I have been delighted to serve alongside him, "Reid said. "She is tireless when it comes to fighting for the people of Minnesota and the country, and that is why she is such a popular senator in her country and among her colleagues."
But Reid's warning of Klobuchar in 2015 seems to have been a rare point of intervention in a long history of complaints about Klobuchar's behavior, which goes back at least to his term of office. 39, a lawyer from Hennepin County, Minneapolis. This was the work that Klobuchar had when he first applied to the Senate in 2006.
During this first campaign, the assistants assembled an eight-page memo describing the duties of Klobuchar's natural person, the employee who oversees all logistics and personal needs of Klobuchar. a candidate. The challenges of working with the candidate of the time were frank.
"Especially while she's in the car for a busy day: if she's extremely upset about something, let her get angry, do not interrupt her unless ABSOLUTELY, and be careful when you try to calm her down the bed reads. "Often, she just needs to talk openly and does not care about other people's opinions – it's something you'll get used to and you'll fit it's just a note for the first time." time, that happens. "
In response, Ben Goldfarb, who ran his 2006 campaign, said," Getting into political office is extremely difficult for the candidate, his family and his staff, and our team was proud to have helped her to elect him. "
[PREVIOUSLY: Sen.. The ill-treatment inflicted on Amy Klobuchar by the staff discourages candidates from handling her candidacy for the presidential election. ]
During this campaign, the president of the local AFSCME, the union that represented many Klobuchar employees in the County Attorney's Office, asked the affiliates of the AFSCME, Twin Cities, not to subscribe to Klobuchar's candidacy in the Senate, citing his "shameful treatment of his employees".
Klobuchar had "created a hostile work environment" and "seriously damaged the morale of the office," wrote James Appleby, the president of the local. The letter stated that the number of grievances addressed to the union was increasing under Klobuchar's mandate and that Klobuchar had already told his own employees that they were not competent enough to work in his former law firm. He also claimed that the local had asked the union not to endorse his county attorney's offer in 2002.
"In short, Amy Klobuchar is exactly the kind of candidate to whom the union is going. AFSCME should oppose it, "he wrote.
The letter, which Appleby provided to HuffPost (and which is reproduced below), followed a controversial battle over possible wage increases for Klobuchar's staff, more than 100 of whom were represented by AFSCME. According to the union, Hennepin County's lawyers were among the lowest paid from the state after years of being the best paid.
At the time, Klobuchar stated that she was arguing for a salary increase but was constrained by budgetary problems and was disputing the statement in the letter that the union grievances were increasing under her direction.
Employees are employees, they are not servants. There is a difference between "Make sure I have a Diet Coke during an event" and "Pick up my dirty clothes while waiting for me to dress up".
She and her staff maintained that the letter was a negative response to wage negotiations. , according to a 2006 Star Tribune article. A county council official said at the time that Klobuchar had vigorously defeated him for the increase, and Paul Scoggin, general attorney at his office, praised her for his "formidable leader". He described the letter as "wickedness and anger". 19659002] Scoggin did not respond to interview requests. A former director of the office said it was hard to imagine how Klobuchar had created a morale problem, since most lawyers did not have daily contact with her. "Can she be hard to work? Yes, because she never stops working, "he said. "And that burns some people, and that's the job."
The letter, in a passage that potentially echoes sexist stereotypes about elected women, also states that Klobuchar's political ambition has compromised his office management. She accuses him of recognizing the hard work of his employees by acting as the public face of the office and refusing qualified candidates to work in his office for the benefit of "candidates who support his ambitions".
Klobuchar, a talented retail politician who visited all 87 counties of the state, won his election in 2006 easily and was re-elected twice at large margins.
But, as reported by HuffPost on Wednesday, she was worried about the way she had been treated by her staff in Washington. The staff turnover rate is still one of the highest in the Senate.
Former staff members told HuffPost that Klobuchar had lost heart with constant and cruel e-mails sent late in the evening and claimed that staff were required to perform personal chores, wash dishes at home – in violation of the rules of the Senate and the federal law prohibiting the personal use of the office.
Other people in his Senate office believe that many critics addressed to Klobuchar HuffPost
"I heard people say that it was hard to work for her, and I sometimes afraid to annoy him because I rarely hear that about male bosses in Congress, despite the fact that it's hard to work for half of the congressmen, "said Tristan Brown, former assistant legislative.
Requiring personal requests from staff is an extremely common practice in the Senate and the body of this body has few procedures to enforce its rules. The House, on the other hand, is asking its members to break the same federal law a little more regularly.
There are no comparable rules regarding the use of campaign personnel. And in the frenzy of a Senate race, it is not unusual for field workers to go on personal errands – doing dry cleaning, cleaning a car – for which the candidate simply does not have the time.
When Klobuchar was presented for re-election in 2012, his staff re-used the person memo in 2006, said one staff member in 2012. Most of the notes intended for the physical person are typical , with instructions to choose his business and how to keep it politely on time. (A former staff member provided a copy on the condition that HuffPost does not publish the entire memo.) Notes of this type are not unusual: in 2017, Politico revealed the following: existence of a document of eight pages dated from the time. Todd Rokita's office was dealing only with the Indiana Republican driver around his neighborhood.
Yet, a long-time old man who reviewed Klobuchar's campaign memo for HuffPost said he contained obligations that he felt were crossing a line and that the memo of The Times are shocking, for example, when it is written, "Speak only when it is spoken", so as not to unnecessarily prolong a conversation.
The most troubling section was entitled "Personal Preferences and Needs at Home". described what the person should do "in his free time or in a bedroom (dressing room)":
- Hanging clothes that she leaves flat on the floor and her chair
- Pick up dirty clothes and place them in a basket (in the hallway between the room and the bathroom)
- Arrange the clothes in the closet so that she can easily find the objects (separated in a shirt, a suit, etc.)
- Throw any garbage in the dressing room
- sure that nylons / socks / etc are in dr Help is arranged for easy recovery
"The staff is a staff, they are not servants", has he declared. "There is a difference between" make sure you have a diet coke during an event "and" pick up my dirty clothes while waiting for me to dress up. "… I understand, the life of the candidates is incredibly demanding and unless you are worth millions and you can pay someone for the team of your house, sometimes political staff, they intervene and fill this void And it's not appropriate. "
Klobuchar's office and his campaign did not answer questions about this article In response to HuffPost's initial story, Klobuchar's campaign stated that the senator "adored her staff."
"She has many associates who have been with her for years – including her chief of staff and state director, who worked for her for 5 years and 5 years. 7 years old – and many of them have gone on to do incredible things, ranging from working in the Obama administration (over 20) to running for office or even to being Minnesota's agriculture commissioner El He is proud of them and the work they have done for Minnesota, "said the campaign.
The former man who had gone before the ceremony, who had requested anonymity to compare his own professional experiences, was also struck by the cautionary note on Klobuchar's Shards.
He stated that it is normal for senior managers to warn members of the body against the whims of a candidate and how they are conducted in private. He saw a lot of candidates get in the car after an event and start going wild. "So, you let them do it," he said.
He crossed a line, he said, "if they take it from the person who is sitting there."
This is basically the problem described by the former Klobuchar staff and those who interacted with them.
A former aide to the former Sen. Al Franken is reminded of a meeting at a Veterans Day event that Klobuchar was late for. (Franken, another Democrat from Minnesota, resigned from the Senate in December 2017 after several women accused him of having fondled or kissed him, often during political events.) [19659007AyoungKlobucharstaffmemberwassenttoexplaintheSenator'sdelaytotheFrankenstaffmember
"I am supposed to tell you," she said with a terrified air, "Senator Klobuchar is late today because I am bad at work."
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