ST. PAUL (WCCO) — Minnesota Senate Republicans have set next Tuesday as the day they will elect a new Majority Leader. That’s the person who will replace Senator Amy Koch, who resigned suddenly last week amid controversy.

Sen. Koch stepped down after allegations that she was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. And now, Gov. Mark Dayton has made his first public comments on the matter.

Dayton was uncharacteristically reluctant to talk about it but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anything to say.

Koch resigned as Majority Leader last week after several Republican Senators confronted her about allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a male Senate staffer.

That resignation sent shock waves through the new Senate Majority.

For the first time since the controversy began, Democratic Gov. Dayton first refused comment, calling it a private matter.

But he had plenty to say about Republicans who made “sanctity of marriage” a hallmark of the last session, approving a vote next year to ban gay marriage.

“I don’t think it represents the mainstream view of our practice of the Republican Party any more than it does the DFL party,” Dayton said. “We are talking about human beings here. Not one political party or another but I think the point is legitimate.”

Republicans have set next Tuesday as the day they will elect a new Majority Leader.