Senate DFLers end power sharing agreement with accused felon Nicole Mitchell casting decisive vote

The tragic passing of Sen. Kari Dziedzic in December left Minnesota’s state Senate balanced at 33-33 pending a special election to fill the vacant seat. For the start of the 2025 session on January 14, Republicans and DFLers reached a power-sharing agreement. On January 28, Doron Clark (DFL) won the special election to fill the seat. Sen. Clark was sworn in yesterday taking the Senate back to a 34-33 split and the DFL’s first order of business was to end the power-sharing agreement. Such are the legitimate advantages of having a majority of one among the body’s duly elected members.

The vote to nix the power-sharing agreement was 34-33. The DFL’s 34th — and decisive vote — was cast by Sen. Nicole Mitchell (DFL). You may recall that:

Around one o’clock in the morning of Monday, April 22 [2024], Democratic state Sen. Nicole Mitchell set off on the 200-mile drive from her home in Woodbury to her stepmother’s home in Detroit Lakes. On arrival, dressed all in black and carrying a flashlight covered with a black sock to reduce emitting light, the senator entered the house through a basement window and went to her stepmother’s bedroom. At some point, Sen. Mitchell’s stepmother was awakened and the senator “ran down into the basement.” Mitchell’s stepmother called the police at 4:45 a.m. When officers arrived, they arrested her and, searching her black backpack, found two laptops, a cellphone, and miscellaneous Tupperware. “I know I did something bad,” the senator told the officers. When Sen. Mitchell was given one of the laptops found in her backpack to open, which she claimed was hers, her stepmother’s name appeared on the screen. The senator said the laptop had been given to her “way back when”; her stepmother denies giving the laptop to Sen. Mitchell.  

Upon her release from jail and facing a charge of felony burglary, Sen. Mitchell did not resign from the Minnesota State Senate. Indeed, her DFL colleagues welcomed her and her vote back with smiles and embraces.  

As I wrote last week:

At that time, the DFL held a one-vote majority in the state Senate — 34 to 33 — and, whatever Mitchell may or may not be guilty of, her vote was needed to ram legislation through. As soon as the session was over, however, and her vote was no longer needed, prominent DFLers like Ken Martin and Gov. Tim Walz called on her to resign.

She did not. She insisted on her day in court. But, when her day in court drew close — Mitchell’s trial was due to start on January 27 — she requested that it be delayed until after the legislative session concluded. Incredibly, last week District Court Judge Michael D. Fritz ruled in her favor, and the trial will not now be held until sometime after May 19, the end of the legislative session. Mitchell’s status as a Minnesota state Senator is protecting her from trial.

…

Attempting to do what Ken Martin and Gov. Walz had demanded last year, Senate Republicans moved this afternoon to expel Mitchell immediately and declare a vacancy in her district. But DFL Senators are, again, desperate to keep her vote. Kare 11 reports:

“However, Senate co-president Bobby Joe Champion ruled the motion to expel was out of order. A vote to appeal that decision failed on a tied party-line vote, 33-33, with Mitchell voting alongside fellow Democrats.”

I noted last week: “Mitchell’s vote will be available. And, again, it will be decisive.” So it was.