Although she is now the subject of a new attack commercial by Republicans against an Edina DFLer, Pat Maahs had never been interested in politics very much, and she certainly never dreamed she would be part of an effort to defeat an 11-term legislator.
"I wish I would have paid more attention in my fifth-grade social studies classes," said Maahs, who works at a hardware store. "Let's put it this way, I was pretty green when I came into this. It has been a learning experience, but it's been a good learning experience."
Maahs was pushed into the political world by a bizarre and disturbing series of events.
A couple of years ago, Maahs caught a co-worker ejaculating into her coffee. The employee was fired and charged with criminal sexual conduct after he admitted he had put semen into Maahs' coffee numerous times. But there was no law that covered putting body fluids into someone's food, so the perpetrator, John Lind of Blaine, escaped serious punishment.
Maahs was angry enough that she set out to strengthen the law, testifying before the Legislature despite the humiliating nature of the assault.
Last session, Rep. Debra Hilstrom, D-Brooklyn Center, introduced a bill that would make the act of putting bodily fluids into someone's food sexual assault. The bill was discussed late one night, when everyone was obviously tired and punchy. But that's no excuse for what happened next.
Rep. Ron Erhardt, D-Edina, invoked a scene from "Friends" to raise questions about the potential reach of the bill. To demonstrate, he held up his coffee cup and began to lick the rim. At some point, he burst into hysteric laughter.
Maahs, who had worked diligently to pass the law, was sitting in the gallery. She didn't find it funny. Someone tipped me off to the scene, and I wrote a column about it last March.
