The new Minnesota state flag flies alongside the Quadriga on May 13, 2024. Photo by Andrew VonBank/Minnesota House Public Information Services.
House Democrats held a covert swearing-in ceremony Sunday, two days before the Jan. 14 opening of the legislative session. Democrats, who alerted the public after the fact, are seeking to prevent Republicans from using their temporary one-vote advantage from taking control of the House.
What’s this all about?
Democrats say they’re prepared to “strike,” i.e., not show up, to prevent Republicans from achieving a necessary 68-member quorum — effectively shutting down the House and preventing Republicans from using their temporary, 67-66 majority to elect a GOP House speaker.
Democrats did the early swearing in so they can stay away from the Capitol.
The House is expected to be 67-67 after a special election for the Roseville-area, deeply blue District 40B on Jan. 28, though there’s another House race in dispute.
Republicans quickly derided the House Democratic-Farmer-Labor members’ swearing-in ceremony as “illegitimate” and “a slap in the face to the institution.” The DFL caucus said taking the oath of office early was not unprecedented, but House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman on MPR News Monday said it has never happened before.
In the absence of a party in power, Democrats and Republicans are going back and forth, declaring the rightness of their interpretation of Minnesota laws and procedures.
The claims and counterclaims are likely to continue, as the state is in uncharted territory.
On Monday, the Reformer asked the House Chief Clerk’s Office whether the DFL’s swearing-in ceremony was legitimate, but the office declined to comment, saying it’s waiting for things to “play out.”
The chaos broke into the open last week, after Democrats announced they would not show up to the Capitol until the 40B special election. Republicans last month took a temporary 67-66 advantage when DFL Rep.-elect Curtis Johnson resigned his District 40B seat after a judge ruled that he didn’t meet the legal residency requirement.
An election contest is also taking place in the seating of Rep.-elect Brad Tabke, who won a Shakopee-area seat by 14 votes. Republicans challenged the results over 20 missing ballots, and a judge is expected to issue a ruling imminently. The Constitution gives the House and Senate ultimate authority to seat their own members, however, so the judge’s ruling doesn’t necessarily have controlling legal authority.
Tabke was sworn in Sunday during the swearing in ceremony, and Reid LeBeau, a lawyer for the Republican challenging the election results, called it a “direct attack on this Court.” The lawyer asked the judge to consider sanctions against Tabke or holding him in contempt of court.
LeBeau in his letter said the swearing in ceremony was “merely desperate acts of performance art” and quoted Shakespere’s Julius Caesar.
“If this was an authentic attempt to swear in members of the House, Shakespeare may have said it best ‘upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, That he is grown so great.’”
Republicans have said that no matter what the judge rules, they will not seat Tabke.
Tabke’s lawyer rebuked LeBeau, saying that the “administration of the oath of office to Representative Tabke in no way impinges upon the Court’s ability to perform its role in this election contest.”
The Republican Party of Minnesota said it’s preparing recall petitions for each DFL member who doesn’t show up to work.
Once session starts, Republicans would need 68 votes to pass any legislation, but they could install a speaker with 67 votes — likely the GOP leader, Rep. Lisa Demuth — and Democrats wouldn’t be able to remove her, even when the special election brings the House back to a tie.
In the absence of a House speaker, Secretary of State Steve Simon will preside over the chamber Tuesday. Simon said he will call the House to order, appoint a clerk pro tem, ask the chaplain to offer a prayer, lead the pledge of allegiance and ask the clerk to do a roll call.
Simon said if there are not 68 members present, he will adjourn the session until the next day and do so each day following until quorum is present and a speaker is elected.
But Republicans are even protesting Simon’s presence, saying that it would be wrong for him to find there’s no quorum present, and if he did, Republicans could remove him.
“While it is proper for a presiding officer to make an initial determination of quorum, any such determination can be appealed to the body just like every decision by every presiding officer of every legislative body,” Demuth and Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said in a letter to Simon Monday. “If you seek to overstep your authority, you are subject to removal and replacement by the body.”