Monday could feel like a scene from the movie “Groundhog’s Day” in the Minnesota House, with a reboot of a session that started almost two weeks earlier.
That comes after the state Supreme Court ruled that much of the work they’ve done so far was effectively invalidated.
Secretary of State Steve Simon intends to return as presiding officer — as he was on Jan. 14 when Republicans plowed forward over his declaration they lacked authority. Democrats, whose boycott left the House shy of a quorum, haven’t indicated if they’ll show up.
A variety of committee hearings scheduled for Monday were canceled over the weekend and it wasn’t immediately clear whether legislative leaders made progress on a power-sharing deal.
The Minnesota Supreme Court on Friday offered at least one answer to a question that had split Republicans and Democrats in the chamber. It said that the threshold to convene and do work is 68 members.
That’s important because Republicans had been running the chamber and had elected leadership with their 67 votes. Meanwhile, Democrats stayed away from the Capitol to deny Republicans the extra vote needed to conduct official business.
The court didn’t explicitly outline what should come next when the House comes back for a do-over.
DFL Leader Melissa Hortman said Friday’s ruling was a message that the court didn’t want to wade too deeply into the business of the Legislature. Now it’s up to leaders to figure it out.
“They did their job. They interpreted the Minnesota Constitution. They’ve told us, quorum is 68 and now the ball is in our court to go solve problems together,” she said.
With a power-sharing deal, Democrats would be willing to end their boycott and return to the Capitol, she said. Such an accord has been elusive since the judge issued a residency challenge that shifted control in the House.
House GOP Leader Lisa Demuth didn’t say whether she’d participate in negotiations. But she said she expected Democrats would come back to work on Monday.
“House Republicans will be showing up to work on Monday — it’s time for the Democrats’ walkout to end and for the Legislature to get on with its work,” Demuth said.
As of Friday, the biggest sticking points remained. Republicans still hadn’t agreed to a proposal to take leadership roles on a temporary basis and to let DFL Rep. Brad Tabke remain in office.
His 14-vote win has been a source of ongoing controversy because a batch of ballots went missing; a judge ruled that he would have prevailed anyway given testimony from affected voters. Republicans have kept open the possibility of removing him anyway.
Without movement on those issues, Hortman said Democrats would take their boycott into a third week, potentially stalling out the House. On social media, GOP Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, suggested that Democrats could face penalties for failing to show up for session on Monday.
Simon a DFLer, expects to preside until that quorum is established, following the court’s ruling. Republicans moved forward with efforts to organize and elect a speaker despite his move to adjourn on the first day of the legislative session. At the time, they told Simon they wouldn’t allow him back in the House to attempt another effort to convene the chamber with the necessary 68 votes.
Voters in Minneapolis will decide Tuesday the winner of a special election for a vacant Senate seat. The result could throw a one-vote majority to Democrats or Republicans, who currently are evenly split without a tiebreaker in the chamber.
The chamber has operated under a power-sharing deal that has allowed operations to move smoothly early in the session. But that agreement could be set aside once a 34th member is seated and can vote to end it.
Senate DFL Leader Erin Murphy, of St. Paul, said she expects that a Democrat will win in the district and again give her party a one-vote edge. But she said having a power-sharing agreement in place “is laying a foundation for collaborative agreement, a collaborative relationship, and our ability to get the work done for the people of Minnesota.”
Because the agreement is allowing the chamber to operate well, GOP Leader Mark Johnson, of East Grand Forks, said Democrats should continue extending it, no matter the outcome of the special election.
“If things continue to work this well, I hope that they reconsider that,” Johnson said. “We can continue to work together on these bills and in committees, because it’s really produced some great relationships and good policy at the beginning here.”
