Still stuck: State Supreme Court decision can't clear Minnesota House logjam

A Minnesota Supreme Court decision last week has not broken the logjam in the Minnesota House yet.

Dysfunction junction

Half-empty House:

Instead, we're seeing a third week of dysfunction.

Republicans and Democrats have not reached any sort of power-sharing agreement, and exactly half of the seats remained empty this afternoon. Sixty-seven House Republicans came to the Capitol again Monday, but they couldn’t do anything.

With the state Supreme Court’s Friday decision that a quorum is 68, everything the GOP has done is now erased, and the next step is for Democrats to show up.

But first, the DFL wants a power-sharing agreement that the GOP is unwilling to give.

Gavel and gone

Secretarial work:

Secretary of State Steve Simon briefly presided over a half-empty House chamber for a second time Monday.

And since the House has now never officially met, there are no committees.

Every committee meeting was canceled, leaving those rooms completely empty.

The negotiations

Offers on the table:

The DFL has offered to let Republicans have all the positions of power in the House until and unless a vote in Roseville gives them a 67-67 tie.

At that point, they want shared power.

Republicans tried to run with all the leadership positions for two years — no matter what happens in Roseville — and they haven’t budged from that position even after losing in the state Supreme Court.

"There is work that Minnesotans expect us to do," said GOP Speaker-designate Lisa Demuth. "That is what we're going to be doing here. What you could actually ask any of the Democrats is if this is going to go on until March."

"That's the Democrats threat, that they're not going to show up for another seven weeks," said Rep. Harry Niska, (R-Ramsey).

The Democrats extended their boycott, saying they’re working away from the Capitol instead of coming to the Capitol.

"The biggest hang up is that the Minnesota House DFL would like to operate under the power-sharing agreement that we negotiated," said DFL Speaker-designate Melissa Hortman. "Once we returned to a tie. And the Minnesota House Republicans would like to continue to run the House as though they had a majority after we're tied at 67-67."

Capitol consequences?

No show no pay?:

Republicans tried to raise a motion to take away any salary or per diem for Democrats until they show up at the Capitol.

Secretary of State Simon had taken the position that there’s no House business until there’s a quorum, so he ignored the motion.

He’ll come check on the numbers again Tuesday afternoon. But this drama could play out all the way into March.

PoliticsSt. Paul