Daughter of late state Sen. Jerry Relph who died of COVID-19 calls on Senate GOP leader to apologize

[TexasTowelie]

Daughter of late state Sen. Jerry Relph who died of COVID-19 calls on Senate GOP leader to apologize for his role in father’s death


The daughter of the late state Sen. Jerry Relph, R-St. Cloud, is calling on the Minnesota Senate majority leader to apologize for holding an in-person election victory party last month, which is how her father likely contracted COVID-19 weeks before he died, she said.

“It was a frivolous and vain action,” said Dana Relph, referring to the Nov. 5 dinner party at a Lake Elmo event center hosted by Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake. “I’m sorry, but celebrating holding onto the Senate in the middle of the pandemic? They were spending money on something like that and then putting people in danger.”

Relph, 42, spoke with the Reformer a day after her father succumbed to complications from the disease, the first Minnesota lawmaker to do so. COVID-19 is particularly deadly to the elderly and those with underlying health conditions. Jerry Relph was 76.

She said the event put not only senators at risk, but also staffers and event employees. “It fills me with rage that it happened.”

Read more: https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/12/21/daughter-of-late-state-sen-jerry-relph-who-died-of-covid-19-calls-on-senate-gop-leader-to-apologize-for-his-role-in-fathers-death/

[OnDoutside]

1. And yet her father went to it. He didn't have to go.

[Rebl2]

4. That

was my thought too

[geardaddy]

6. Bingo.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Why is it the

GOP loves to Project their short failings onto some one else. That crap has gotten so friggin old.

[sheshe2]

3. His choice.

I am sorry he died, yet it was his choice. Doubt he was following any of the guidelines to protect himself and others.

[liberalhistorian]

5. Not to speak ill

of the dead, but Ralph is equally at fault. And he joined in on the state GOP's months of dismissive attitudes and behaviors regarding Covid, its insistence on the full reopening of the state in the midst of soaring caseload because, as Paul "the Ghoul" Gazelka put it, "we need to get on with our lives", and its continual threats against and harassment of Gov. Walz for simply trying to keep the state safe and save as many lives as possible. He also voted against most of the measures to help citizens and was unresponsive to constituent concerns unless they agreed with him.

I was thrilled that he lost his reelection bid, even if it was just by a thin margin. I'm sorry for his death and feel badly for his family, but he attended the party of his own volition, dismissing the risks. He could have stayed home.