As the Minnesota House fast-walked toward constitutional chaos in yet another day of threats and strongly worded letters over quorums, boycotts and unprecedented oath-taking, there is a center of calm elsewhere in the State Capitol.
On the west side of the domed Capitol, the state Senate is preparing for a serene, drama-free beginning of the 2025 session Tuesday. Despite an ugly end to the 2024 session, despite ongoing angst over a member charged with a felony, but perhaps because of the death of a well-regarded lawmaker, the temporarily tied Senate has a deal.
House partisan leaders have been arguing since a court ruling Jan. 5 broke a tie (at least temporarily) in that chamber, and Tuesday’s court ruling upholding another DFL candidate’s victory might not end that dispute either. But their Senate counterparts have been mostly quiet, statesmanlike even. When asked how they would resolve their own tie due to the death last month of Sen. Kari Dziedzic, both DFL leader Erin Murphy and GOP leader Mark Johnson said only, “We’re working on it.”
And at the same time that House DFL members were at the Minnesota History Center for an unpublicized swearing-in ceremony — an act that might have escalated an already tense partisan conflict — Johnson and Murphy announced an agreement (what Murphy called a “nerdy resolution” that will last until Dziedzic is replaced by special election in early February:
- There will be two presidents of the Senate, the senator elected to the constitutional office that presides over the Senate and is second in line to be governor. Sen. Bobby Joe Champion of Minneapolis has been the president of the Senate but will share the role with a Republican not yet determined.
- The party leaders will decide which of the presidents will preside on any day.
- All committees will have co-chairs, a DFL chair and a GOP chair, and committees will be reconstituted temporarily to have equal numbers from each party instead of the DFL having an advantage as it has since 2023. Gavel sharing will be determined by the co-chairs.
- There will be no changes to the rules that govern the Senate through 2025, even after the DFL regains majority control.
- Each caucus leader will appoint a co-presiding officer; caucus leaders will agree who will convene each day.
- The agreement is in place until there are 34 votes to end the agreement, which will occur after the winner of the special election in the 60th District is certified and sworn in.
Why the calm in the Senate while the House is hurtling toward a constitutional crisis? The tie in the Senate is almost certainly temporary given the dominance of the DFL in the Minneapolis district. The DFL will have to win a special election in the Roseville area to regain the tie delivered initially on election night, which leaves the GOP in a single-vote majority. The House GOP can do all sorts of things with that temporary advantage, including elect a speaker and keep her in place for the full two years of this Legislature.
So the Senate GOP didn’t have the same bargaining power as the House GOP. And Murphy knew that any concessions she makes now can be undone when she regains her 34-33 majority.
Still, the contrast is not lost on folks who have been trying to keep up with the hourly changes in the House dynamics (which Monday include mutual threats to launch recall drives against members of the other party).
Though Johnson, from East Grand Forks, joked during an MPR News appearance Monday that negotiations with Murphy were like a WWE wrestling match, they were described throughout as amiable and constructive.
“Everything from the tone from the very beginning of those conversations to the end were just trying to solve problems that exist in our caucuses and trying to serve our constituents,” Johnson said. Co-chairing committees for three weeks could be good practice for finding the issues and solutions that both parties can agree on, he said.
Murphy of St. Paul said it was both a power-sharing and responsibility-sharing agreement that leaves room for both parties to express their policy perspectives.
“There is reason to work together” even after the tie is broken because the House will be either tied or controlled by the GOP, and a DFLer will remain governor, Murphy said. “I hope the spirit of it exceeds this three-week period.”
“We all are observing what is happening in the House but I don’t think we were driven by that as much as wanting to serve the people of Minnesota, the constituents who sent us to do this work,” Murphy said.
Still hanging over the Senate and its newfound comity is the pending felony burglary trial of DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell of Woodbury. And Murphy showed some displeasure last week at news that Mitchell asked a judge to postpone her trial until after the session ends in May … or June.
“We saw last session how the Republicans used her pending court case as a way to disrupt the work of the Senate. I have been looking forward to the resolution of her case,” Murphy said in a press statement.
Should Mitchell’s trial begin at month’s end, she will not be voting in the Senate as is normally allowed by remote voting rules.
Should she be convicted of a felony, the GOP thinks she should be removed. Murphy, who has exiled Mitchell from caucus meetings and removed her from committees, has said Mitchell is elected and can serve until her case is completed. After that?
“Sen. Mitchell has a difficult path and decisions in front of her,” Murphy told MPR. “If she were convicted of a felony, she would take that very seriously. I’ll leave it at that.”
House DFL leader Melissa Hortman seemed a bit jealous of the agreements in the Senate, a body that House members refuse to call the upper chamber.
“Typically the Minnesota House leads the Minnesota Senate, and so it is really embarrassing for the institution that they reached a deal before we did,” Hortman said. The Brooklyn Park DFLer suggested that the Senate used the blueprint reached by Hortman and House GOP Leader Lisa Demuth before it was discarded when a judge tossed out the DFL’s Curtis Johnson in District 40B for not living within the district before he filed for the office.
What happens Tuesday?
The session will be gaveled in at noon — in the Senate by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and in the House by Secretary of State Steve Simon. This is determined by state law, not the constitution, and is usually ceremonial with both turning over the gavel to the president of the Senate and to the House Speaker once they are elected by their bodies.
The House will likely have a bit of a battle. Simon is to select a temporary clerk of the House, someone the House GOP have decided will be Rep. Peggy Scott of Andover. Once she calls the roll in numerical order by district, and after those present have shown their certificates of election, Simon will declare whether there is a quorum present.
With all 66 certified DFL members saying they will boycott the session in order to block a quorum, only 67 members will be in the room.
The DFL secretary of state has already said via letter to Demuth and Hortman he believes there must be 68 members in attendance — one half of the 134 potential members of the House. House Republicans have countered with their own letter that they believe 67 members is more than half of the 133 members who are available to meet.
Someone among the House Republicans is then expected to make a motion challenging the ruling of the presiding officer and that is usually determined by a majority of those members present in the room. If that motion carries, other motions will be made, the most important being to elect Demuth speaker. She will be the first Republican woman to hold that title and will be the first person of color to be a speaker of the Minnesota House.
However, in yet another letter sent Monday afternoon, Simon said if he has determined that a quorum does not exist, there is no legal authority for members in the chambers to make any motions.
“The Supreme Court has made clear that absent a quorum, all the members present can do is adjourn,” Simon wrote. He went on to say the remedy for disappointed Republicans is the courts.
“A prompt judicial resolution would provide the most transparent outcome and reassure all Minnesotans that the House and any presiding officer is operating in accordance with the law,” Simon wrote.
Hortman said if the House GOP disregards a Simon ruling, she expects them to then try to unseat Rep. Brad Tabke, who won his reelection by 14 votes but who is the subject of an election challenge due to 20 accidentally discarded and uncounted ballots.
On Tuesday, the judge ruled that the GOP had not proven its case that its nominee would have won the election if the votes had not been counted and said the election should stand.
House GOP leaders said they might act to remove Tabke regardless because they believe a new vote in District 54A is the only valid remedy.
Hortman said she offered a compromise that has been rejected — the GOP could organize the House and make history with the election of Demuth as speaker. They could control the House until the Roseville election is completed. If the DFL prevails, as is expected in a district Johnson won with 65% of the vote, the House would return to shared power. Part of the offer was that Tabke would be seated should he prevail in court.
If the House GOP moves ahead based on their legal interpretation of a quorum, the House DFL could take the issue to court. If the GOP yields to Simon’s ruling, it could ask the courts to intervene as well, as Simon suggested. And both parties have threatened to launch the recall process against vulnerable members — the GOP for what they say is nonfeasance by DFLers for not showing up in the chambers, and the DFL for what they say is malfeasance by GOP members acting when they lack a quorum. Under state recall law, the Supreme Court decides whether a recall petition is valid and can prevent it from moving forward.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, a ceremony will honor Dziedzic, and the only occurrences that will make the day look different than every other first day is that rather than electing one president of the Senate, they will elect two.
Peter Callaghan
Peter Callaghan covers state government for MinnPost. Follow him on Twitter @CallaghanPeter or email him at pcallaghan@minnpost.com.
