MN House starts session: business as usual, but no Democrats

A few minutes late, but shortly after noon on the appointed day (today), MN Secretary of State Steve Simon gaveled into session the House of Representatives of the 94th Minnesota Legislature.

It was all so normal, except none of the House’s 66 Democrats bothered to turn up. Our man Bill Walsh was in the gallery this afternoon and took this photo of the half-empty room.

From there, everything proceeded according to script: Rep. Peggy Scott (R-31B, Andover) assumed her place on the platform as the temporary Clerk. After the usual opening pleasantries (prayer, pledge), she began to call the roll, but only the 67 Republicans who were elected last November answered the call.

Fox 9 had a live stream going of the event and recorded the full thing, sights and sounds alike. At the 32:16 mark of the video, Simon declares that “there being 133 certificates of election on file” he could proceed with the administering of the oath of office. He mentions 133, not 134.

Then 67 Republicans were duly sworn in and the roll was called again.

At the 34:45 mark of the Fox 9 video, Sec. Simon declared a lack of a quorum, said the words “the House of Representatives is adjourned,” and then cowardly abandoned his post, taking no inquiries from the members present.

Simon can say whatever he wants, but no motion to adjourn was made and no vote was taken. Simon simply dismounted the rostrum. At this point (35:05), someone cut off the sound. The action (and sound) does not resume until 35:28 of the Fox 9 video.

We pick up with the House, following the provisions of M.S. 3.05 installing “the oldest member present” (Paul Anderson, R-12A, Starbuck) as temporary Speaker, with the Secretary being absent and no longer available to continue the meeting.

Rep. Anderson then proceeded to declare a quorum present and preside over the election of Lisa Demuth (R-13A, Cold Spring) as Speaker. Demuth took the gavel and then things proceeded, business as usual for Day 1 of a session.

The very next order of business was to establish the status of the missing 134th seat. At 1:13:00 the House declared a vacancy in District 40B (Roseville). Under statute, this vacancy declaration is supposed to start the clock for ordering a special election to fill the seat. As it happens, Gov. Walz prematurely, and contrary to state statute, has called an election for Jan. 28.

Temporary rules were adopted (1:15:48) which included the creation of a new oversight committee to investigate the rampant fraud against state welfare programs.

This new committee is called Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight and is chaired by state Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-37A, Maple Grove).

The House also voted (67-0) to rehire all of the House’s staff employees.

At 1:22:30 the Speaker appointed members of the Rules Committee, Republicans only. Chaired by the Majority Leader (Harry Niska, R-31A, Anoka) the committee met later in the day. The committee then did its usual Day 1 work, assisted by the newly rehired staff, of adopting policies and procedures to ensure the House is up and running.

In fact, for all committees, only Republicans were named as members today. The House also put off the election of a permanent Clerk and a Sergeant-at-Arms.

Finally, the House voted to adjourn for the day, having agreed moments before to reconvene at noon tomorrow (Wednesday). One would hope that Sec. Simon would have the good judgment, if not the good taste, to stay away.

During today’s session, no decision was made as to the status of DFL Rep. Brad Tabke (54B, Shakopee). Although not present today, Tabke received the backing of a state judge in a preliminary ruling on his election case. (You will recall that Tabke “won” his election by 14 votes with 20 never-counted votes reported as destroyed.)

The Tabke case is worth noting for another reason. It was first floated on January 6 that Democrats were considering a Day 1 boycott. MPR News reported at the time:

“If there is no power-sharing agreement, we will not be here,” Democratic House Leader Melissa Hortman said.

As recently as yesterday, Hortman issued a press release about the dispute that didn’t mention Tabke once.

From eight days ago until this morning, the Democrat casus belli was all about power. Today the messaging had shifted to taking up the cause of Tabke’s seat. In the event, Tabke was acknowledged (for now) as a member of the body. It’s almost as if there isn’t an actual principle underlying the Democrat boycott.

We’ll see what happens next. Republicans are in possession of the House’s Chamber as well as its website and offices, and are conducting committee hearings and the like. Democrats may choose to stay away as long as they wish, but business continues in their absence.

In the coming days, we’ll see whether the Governor and/or the state senate (itself evenly divided (33-33) go along with the current state of affairs. [Update: the Governor responds with a vague statement calling for total Republican surrender.]

The next round of the fight may be in court. Sec. Simon issued a statement saying that he would sue over what occurred after he fled the room.

A round-up of media headlines that accurately describe what happened:

Star Tribune: Minnesota House Democrats boycott first day of session, GOP meets anyway

Pioneer Press: Minnesota House Republicans elect speaker as DFL colleagues boycott session

MPR News: Minnesota House DFLers boycott opening session; Republicans elect their own speaker

KARE-11 Minnesota DFL boycotts start of legislative session, GOP presses ahead, names speaker

KSTP-5 House Democrats absent to start session; GOP members carry on, choose speaker

AP Democrats boycott first day of Minnesota House session but GOP votes to appoint speaker anyway

WCCO-4 Minnesota House Democrats are no-shows amid legislative session’s bitter beginning

Fox 9 alone chose to pick the Democrats’ side in the dispute: MN House GOP pushes ahead without official quorum as DFL skips Day 1.

A few hours later, Fox 9 doubled down with this provocative headline: ‘Attempted coup’: Chaos reigns in half-empty Minnesota House. Anyone who watched the Fox 9 feed (link above) this afternoon witnessed exactly zero seconds of chaos. Fox 9 contradicts itself, reporting:

Republicans held a session like any other, except with half the seats empty.

Apparently, as Fox 9 reports, many House Democrats chose to spend their day in Shakopee, their newest favorite city, rather than representing their constituents in the House Chamber in St. Paul.

Fox 9 adds:

Democrats will now go to the Supreme Court to stop Republicans from blocking Rep. Tabke and from ruling the House while they’re not around.

They’re hoping a ruling could come within a couple of weeks.

An unstated goal of the Democrats is the disbanding of the new anti-fraud House committee.

The Democrats won’t be, but we’ll be back again, noon tomorrow, covering this story for you!