Florian W. Chmielewski, Sr. (born February 10, 1927) is a Minnesota musician, politician, a former legislator, and a former President of the Minnesota Senate.

Chmielewski was elected to the Senate in 1970, becoming chair of the employment committee in 1981. During a special session in 1987, Chmielewski was elected to serve as president, due to the absence of State Sen. Jerome M. Hughes

Jerome M. Hughes

Jerome M. Hughes is a Minnesota politician, a former legislator, and a former President of the Minnesota Senate. Hughes was elected to the Senate in 1966, and served for 26 years in the body...

, who both preceded and succeeded Chmielewski in the position.

In 1996, Chmielewski became embroiled in the "phonegate" scandal. It was revealed that Chmielewski had given family members state long-distance access codes, allowing them to make phone calls at state expense. Chmielewski was ultimately defeated for re-election in 1996, after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.

Chmielewski continues to work as an accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

 player with the Chmielewski Family Funtime Band, performing polka

Polka

The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...

music throughout the midwest.