Rep. McMillin Abruptly Resigns

The big news for the Indiana General Assembly yesterday was majority floor leader, Rep. Jud McMillin’s abrupt resignation. I have not been as careful a watcher of the legislature lately as I have been in years past, but a quick search of my blog shows a few hits for Rep. McMillin, probably most notorious of which was one of those proposals to require poor people to get drug tests before being eligible for welfare benefits and restricts the types of foods available through food stamps. On that, I posted at the time:

Other states have tried the drug testing for welfare recipients and have found it to be a waste of taxpayer money. The idea is, I suppose, that their poverty is the result of their poor moral choices, e.g., doing drugs. If they weren’t so drug addled, obviously they would be productive citizens. But, it turns out, not so much. The welfare population doesn’t seem to do illegal drugs at a higher rate than the population at large. The experience of other states is that it costs as much or more to test people than it saves by denying benefits to those few who test positive.

Speaking of poor moral choices, Rep. McMillin’s resignation does not appear to be due to, as the original press release indicated, his ardent desire to spend more time with his family. Rather, as Lesley Weidenbener reported for the IBJ, and Tony Cook and Chelsea Schneider reported for the Indy Star, there is something to do with sex and a phone. And Canada. From the Weidenbener article:

Sources close to the Republican caucus said someone obtained McMillin’s phone and discovered at least one video that showed the lawmaker involved in sexual contact. The sources did not detail who else was involved.

But before his resignation, McMillin sent a message alerting contacts that his phone had been stolen and to disregard any messages they had recently received from him. “I am truly sorry for anything offensive you may have received,” the text said.

From the Cook/Schneider article:

McMillin said in a text message last week, “My phone was stolen in Canada and out of my control for about 24 hours. I have just been able to reactivate it under my control. Please disregard any messages you received recently. I am truly sorry for anything offensive you may have received.”

The inference has to be that there is something about the sex video that goes beyond just sex that happened to be recorded. It’s not for everybody, but there is nothing particularly scandalous about couples choosing to record themselves. If McMillin and his wife had a video distributed without their consent, then they’d very much be the victims and there would be no reason for him to resign. So, I assume an extra detail or two will be forthcoming before too long.