Minnesota House DFLers boycott opening session in attempt to shut down chamber business

DFLers made good on their threat Tuesday to keep the Minnesota House in limbo, boycotting the opening of the session as the parties battle for chamber control. House Republicans say they are pushing forward in the half-empty chamber. It is not clear what will come next.

House Democrats were absent when the Legislature met at noon. Republicans there vowed to go ahead with the session, but questions about whether they have the legal ability to do so have not been fully answered.

Cameras panned the House chamber — and the empty DFL side — just after noon as roll call began. The clerk paused after calling the names of DFLers with no response. The Republicans all vigorously checked in as “present” as their names on roll call arrived.

GOP members were then sworn in. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jennifer Frisch administered the oath of office to the Republicans, and a round of applause followed.

‘No other way out’

DFL leaders had signaled earlier in the day that they intended to follow through on the boycott threat.

In a mid-morning statement, House Democratic Leader Melissa Hortman said the DFL would not show up Tuesday at the Capitol, potentially denying the chamber a quorum and preventing it from conducting business.

Hortman cited the GOP’s response to the news that a judge concluded that state Rep. Brad Tabke, a DFL Minnesota House incumbent who narrowly won re-election, should be able to begin a new term. House GOP Leader Lisa Demuth criticized the ruling and said her caucus would evaluate it and consider options.

Hortman said in his statement that the DFL had no choice but to stop the House from conducting business.

“Given Republican statements this morning indicating their intent to ignore the election results and the court’s decision, Democrats have no other option to protect the will of the voters than to deny quorum until the special election in (House District) 40B is completed, and that a new member has been sworn in,” wrote Hortman.

District 40B is a crucial seat that opened after the November winner, a DFLer, was disqualified for failing to establish proper residency in time to serve the Roseville-Shoreview area district. That must be filled in a Jan. 28 special election — that timing is also part of a pending court battle — and will determine whether Republicans gain a real advantage or if the chamber is tied 67-67.

Hortman’s remarks signal that the stalemate at the start of the Legislature’s five-month run will continue.

House Democrats have threatened an indefinite boycott if Republicans move forward with an attempt to take key leadership positions with a temporary one-vote advantage they will be able to hold onto this year and perhaps beyond.

It’s not entirely clear what Republicans might do if DFLers defect. They insist that 67 members are enough to constitute a quorum and suggest that they will ignore orders to the contrary from the presiding officer at the start of the session.

On Tuesday morning, a judge sided with Tabke, saying he should be able to start his new term as the winner of the election and that “neither an injunction nor a special election is warranted or ordered.”

With an indefinite boycott, it’s not clear when the House will at least begin its work — and it has a lot of work to do this session.

Lawmakers must pass a two-year budget by July 1 or the state could face a government shutdown. They could also take a public construction funding bill because they were unable to get one over the finish line last year.

They could also weigh a variety of insurance bills and possible tweaks to Minnesota’s burgeoning legal cannabis marketplace and paid family and medical leave program set to go live next year.

Lawmakers are required to adjourn the May 19 legislative session, but they could be called back into a special session if they can’t get their work done on time.

Will the Republicans choose a speaker?

Republicans have said they will move forward with an effort to elect GOP Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, as House speaker and put other Republicans in place as committee chairmen.

“We’re not right now, and the actions and the way the Democrats have shown that they don’t want to work with us, whether they like the circumstances or not, really calls into question how seriously they would work with all of us the way through on a power-sharing (agreement) or these shenanigans that we’ve seen,” Demuth said earlier this week.

Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, wrote to GOP leaders last week saying there must be 68 votes in the chamber to do any formal business, what is known as a quorum.

Republicans insist they have the authority to act with 67 members. They said they would ignore Simon and accuse him of colluding with members of his party to stop Parliament.

“It appears that other members of your political party will engage in lawless conduct to thwart the lawful organization of the Minnesota House,” GOP leaders wrote Monday in a letter to Simon. “You need not make yourself complicit in their shameful efforts.”

Simon replied Monday and said his assessment had not changed. He said that without 68 members, the chamber would not be able to decide on the election of leaders or other proposals.

What about the Senate?

Senate leaders announced Sunday that they had reached an agreement to share power, at least early in the session. Republicans and Democrats will share custody of presiding officer posts and committee chairmanships, with the exact rotation of hams to be determined. They will have equal representation in the committees.

As part of that deal, senators on Tuesday named Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, as co-presidents of the Senate. The pair hugged after their choice.

Going into the session, Republicans and Democrats will be evenly split at 33-33 with no tiebreaker. A special election for a Minneapolis-area seat will break a tie later this month. And the power-sharing agreement can be reversed when a caucus gains a 34th member.

But top lawmakers said whatever procedural rules were passed early in the session will remain in place for the rest of the year.