Nov 29, 2021

Hutch Dem: Coleman should step down, may be appetite for removal

Posted Nov 29, 2021 4:17 PM
Jason Probst
Jason Probst

By NICK GOSNELLHutch Post

HUTCHINSON — Democratic Rep. and House Assistant Minority Leader Jason Probst sees the continuing issues with fellow Democratic Rep. Aaron Coleman as serious enough that he should step down. Coleman has been arrested twice this fall, the latest on alleged DUI over the weekend.

"The best option would be for him to recognize that he is struggling," Probst said Monday. "It's very apparent to everyone around him that he has some mental health needs. A judge in a previous case had indicated that he needs mental health help. The best option would be for him to resign, get that help that he needs, develop the tools that he needs to manage himself better and the legislature is not an environment that's conducive to that."

Coleman
Coleman

Probst thinks there may be additional appetite for the members of the House to vote him out that wasn't there before.

"I think there's more of an appetite now than there was previously," Probst said. "We did file an attempt to use the process in the legislature to expel him. That committee met and made some recommendations, including securing mental health treatment. It was pretty toothless at the time, but, then again, most of what had happened up to that point had occurred before he was elected to the legislature. Now that we've had several incidents that have arisen, since he's been a member of the legislature, I think there's maybe a renewed call and maybe a renewed appetite to address that further."

The key that makes Coleman's incidents different than the DUI charges that have come against other members during their tenures is that this isn't a one-time single issue.

"What we see with Rep. Coleman is a pattern," Probst said. "I think you could look at some of the other cases and say they might be, you know, there might be a case where there was a one-off case or something like that. Certainly, with this individual, we're seeing a repeated pattern over and over and over again that doesn't seem to be changing at all."

Online records indicate that the 21-year-old Coleman, who represents the state's 37th District in Kansas City, Kansas was jailed briefly Saturday in Douglas County for DUI.