DFL, GOP jockey for power in Minnesota House a day before session’s start
House leaders trade charges over tactics; Senate reaches power-sharing deal
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The political battle over which party should control the Minnesota House intensified over the weekend and spilled into Monday, putting Tuesday’s start of the new legislative session into serious question.
While Minnesota Senate leaders reached a weekend deal on sharing authority in their tied chamber, House Republicans and DFLers continue to trade charges over tactics as they try to sort out the balance of power.
Voters elected 67 Democrats to the Minnesota House and 67 Republicans. In the weeks since, one DFLer got tripped up by a residency problem, leaving an open seat set to be filled with a special election this month. In the Shakopee area, the results of a race remain under scrutiny — DFLer Rep. Brad Tabke won reelection by 14 votes but 20 ballots were cast but not counted.
DFLers have said they’re willing to boycott the start of the session without a deal, a move that could potentially keep the chamber from conducting business.
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‘The only negotiating power I have’
Tabke and fellow DFLers on Sunday took the highly unusual step of conducting their own oath-of-office ceremony presided over by retired Hennepin County District Court Judge Kevin Burke at the Minnesota History Center.
By Monday morning, the GOP had denounced the swearing in as illegitimate. A lawyer for Tabke's opponent calling for a judge to reject punish the lawmaker for a “charade” that was “not just a direct attack on this court, but also a direct attack to circumvent Minnesota law.”
Democratic leaders said they wanted to be sure all their members were “properly and legally sworn in” ahead of Tuesday in case the DFLers sit out the opening day. It is part of their strategy to block Republicans from conducting business, including the election of a speaker, without an agreement between the parties to share power.
“Once the speaker election is done, it cannot be undone, so the only negotiating power I have right now is to deny a quorum,” Melissa Hortman, the House DFL leader, told MPR News Monday morning.
“We want to collaborate so much with the Republicans that we're willing to go to quite extreme measures to protect our power in that negotiation, the position that Republicans have put us in and threatening to throw out a newly elected member of Minnesota Legislature, which has never happened before, just because they want to do over in a race that they lost,” Hortman said. “That is outrageous.”
Republicans questioned whether the private ceremony was legal. A joint statement from House GOP leaders Lisa Demuth and Harry Niska cited state law that includes the oath of office as part of the opening day organization.
“This move is a slap in the face to the institution and to every voter who expects their elected officials to act in good faith and uphold the integrity of the legislative process. Minnesotans sent us here to govern, not to play political games,” their statement read.
Demuth said that Republicans still planned to take the reins of power at the Capitol since the GOP has a one-vote temporary majority.
“If we do return to that 67-67 tie, we can definitely look at ways to do some power sharing, but that ship has sailed at a tie right now,” Demuth told MPR News on Monday. “The way that the Democrats have shown that they will not work with us, regardless of whether or not they like the circumstances, really brings into question how serious they were going to work with us all the way through power sharing or these antics that we've seen.”
House Republicans have said they would employ their one-vote edge — even if it’s temporary — and look to grab the speaker’s gavel and committee chair positions. That’s a shift after leaders considered sharing control following the election.
“There is no need for a power-sharing agreement, because there is not equal power in the state of Minnesota,” Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said last week. “There are 67 Republicans, 66 Democrats.”
Demuth is poised to become speaker under the temporary GOP advantage.
But that’s contingent on enough members of the House of Representatives showing up on the first day to constitute a quorum. That minimum number of legislators determines if lawmakers can take up business, like voting or — in this case — taking their oaths of office.
Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, has urged Demuth not to move forward with taking control when a tie could resume in a couple weeks. A special election for the Roseville area seat is scheduled for Jan. 28.
“Neither caucus has a majority,” Hortman said last week. “We have to work together to get things done, and we would like to do that starting on the first day.”
If Republicans don’t come to the table to discuss shared control of the chamber, Hortman said Democrats are willing to boycott.
She and Demuth disagree about whether pulling 66 votes from the chamber could prevent the House from reaching quorum and effectively prevent any action there. House Republican leaders are also challenging Secretary of State Steve Simon’s position that he has the power to declare a quorum in the chamber.
Later Monday afternoon, Hortman ratcheted up the rhetoric, saying, “If the Republicans declare kangaroo court and they're going to violate Minnesota statutes ... we may have to consider recall petitions for malfeasance."
Senate power deal set, but questions linger
The Senate will convene Tuesday with a 33-33 split following the death of Minneapolis Sen. Kari Dziedzic, a DFLer and former majority leader. The vacancy there will also be filled in a special election. Another DFL senator will be out on the first day for a court hearing related to a burglary charge against her.
On Sunday night, Senate leaders said they reached an agreement to jointly run the chamber while it is tied for much of this month.
DFL Sen. Erin Murphy and Republican Sen. Mark Johnson said their deal involves co-presiding officers and switching between the parties convening floor sessions. All committees will have equal party membership and joint chairs, also with a form of rotating gavels decided by each panel.
The agreement will be binding until there are 34 votes — one more than half of the full chamber — to end it. That presumably would be after one party gains a clear majority, which could come through elections, a party switch or some bipartisan coalition seeking to change course.
“Under these terms, we can begin the work of 2025, avoid gridlock, and uphold the best of this institution,” Murphy said in a written statement.
Added Johnson: “We all bring something to the table, and we can work productively under this temporary organization with an orderly start to session.”
While the deal appears to pave the way for a less turbulent kickoff than the House, there could still be complications.
Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, is set to stand trial in her criminal burglary trial late this month. Democratic Leader Erin Murphy said Mitchell would not be able to cast votes during the multiday trial.
“If she were in her trial and casting a vote, that would be a real problem, and she knows that too. So there will be days when, if she’s in trial, she won’t be here. She’ll be absent,” said Murphy, DFL-St. Paul.
Mitchell will continue to be barred from DFL caucus meetings and committee hearings for the time being, Murphy said.
Johnson said he’s encouraged to see Mitchell be sidelined as the trial moves forward but he said that abstention from voting should be extended.
“I think it should be more than just for that trial period. I think at least until she gets a verdict on that and we can determine after that if it’s a guilty verdict,” Johnson said. “I think we have some much more severe actions that we need to be taking and addressing until that’s determined, she should not be voting.”
Mitchell’s lawyer filed a motion Friday requesting to postpone the trial until the legislative session concludes in May; the prosecution filed a counter motion seeking to a speedy trial.
A judge granted part of Mitchell’s request allowing her to participate in a pretrial motions hearing Tuesday remotely, or as her attorneys sought, “from her office at the state Capitol.”
Legislature’s seen ties before
A House tie is rare but not without precedent. In 1979, then Secretary of State Joan Growe presided over the House chamber on the first day. That was the only time that Minnesota lawmakers came in in a tie. On that first day, a DFL member was hospitalized after having a heart attack.
Discussions over a power-sharing deal were ongoing but lawmakers opted not to select a leader.
“This is the first time in history that the Minnesota House of Representatives will not be organizing and electing a speaker on its opening day,” she told the members.
Lawmakers were sworn in and broke to continue talks about how to split control. But before they left, Growe asked them to keep in mind the unparalleled situation.
“It’s going to take more time than usual, and it’s going to take more patience than it normally would for this organization to take place, I would ask that the members of the House be patient with me. I would ask that you be patient with each other,” Growe said.
Ultimately, lawmakers reached a power-sharing agreement that gave the speaker’s gavel to Republicans and powerful committee chair posts to Democrats. Current House leaders said they looked to the deal as a model last year with some modern updates.
Hortman said there’s still a good opportunity for lawmakers to learn from that moment. She cited then Republican Speaker Rod Searle’s approach back then, explaining why he didn’t push a vote for speaker when Democrats were down a seat after a lawmaker had a heart attack.
“It’s them today, but it could be us tomorrow,” she said. “If somebody’s sick or somebody’s absent, then every single day, it’s oh, today, the Democrats are in charge because somebody’s out sick on the Republican side, and tomorrow, the Republicans are in charge because somebody’s out sick.”
While they were in power-sharing agreements, Hortman said she and Demuth had a similar approach. They didn’t want one side to jump to take an advantage while another was down a member.
In 1979, both sides agreed to a power-sharing deal, but it didn’t last. In a tense vote, Democrats removed a Republican after the Supreme Court ruled he violated election law. The next year was even more heated at the Capitol.
MPR News reporter Clay Masters contributed to this story.
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