By Mike Kaszuba

State Sen. Satveer Chaudhary has formally challenged the decision to take away his DFL endorsement, a move that came Friday as the DFL official who presided over the hearing said he had received death threats during the month-long controversy.

William Krueger, the Senate District 50 DFL chair, said he had multiple, anonymous death threats through telephone calls and an e-mail over the past month, and had informally asked Ramsey County sheriff's deputies to patrol his home. He said the threats were "very explicit" and involved "me and my family", and said he had taken his family to an undisclosed location on weekends. "I don't know how valid it is, but it was such that I wasn't going to take a needless chance," said Krueger. Krueger chaired Monday's unusual hearing in which Chaudhary, one of Minnesota's leading politicians on outdoors issues, pleaded with roughly 50 DFL local activists to keep his endorsement following allegations that the three-term state senator had abused his office. Chaudhary, DFL-Fridley, was stripped of the endorsement by a 32-12 vote, and former legislator Barb Goodwin was then endorsed by DFLers as their preferred candidate in the Aug. 10 primary. A Senate ethics panel took the rare step of publicly admonishing the senator last month following disclosures that Chaudhary, who chairs the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, attempted in May to insert language for special fishing regulations on a lake where he owns a cabin. Chaudhary, who is running for reelection and claims he is still the leading candidate, has apologized for his actions but has referred to them as a "procedural error." Chaudhary's lawyer, Brian Rice, said he was surprised by Krueger's comments, and said he questioned why Krueger did not disclose the threats before the hearing. "This just floors me," said Rice. "He doesn't disclose these things?. . .wow." In Chaudhary's challenge, the senator said that the Senate District 50 DFL Central Committee – which voted to remove the endorsement – did not follow its own rules and "did not provide evidence of clear malfeasance or nonfeasance in office." In addition, the senator said, the committee's own rules showed that 34 votes were needed to remove the endorsement, and that Monday's vote fell two votes shy of what was needed to act. Chaudhary asked state DFL officials to overturn the committee's decision. Goodwin said she became aware of the death threats against Krueger following Monday's meeting and, two days later, listened as Krueger confirmed the threats. "He was pretty nervous," she said of Krueger's demeanor as he described the threats. "He talked about it as if he was really believing that there was a, you know, possible threat. "He's not a man that scares easily," she said.