Interesting Times in the 2025 Minnesota Legislature

On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Minnesota's 94th legislative session is due to be called into order by Steve Simon, Minnesota's elected secretary of state. What happens next in the MN House of Representatives is a constitutional crisis. The basic facts:

1. MN voters elected 67 Republican House Representatives and 67 Democrat House Representatives in November 2024. However! One of the Democrat reps. was found by a court to NOT have residency in their district (House District 40B) and cannot be seated in the 2025 legislature. THEREFORE: At the start of the House session, Republicans will have a 1-vote majority until the special election can be held (there is even more controversy here).
2. With a 1-vote majority, the Republicans will elect Lisa Demuth as speaker. She would take office for 2 years unless there was some unforeseen death or resignation during that time period. She would be the first African-American speaker of the MN House. The speaker has a lot of power to name committee assignments, etc.
3. HOWEVER, Democrats are threatening not to show up on January 14, which causes all kinds of questions. If all Democrats are a no-show, Steve Simon, a Democratic partisan hack, may declare that the quorum requirement failed (lots of different opinions on what constitutes a quorum in the constitution/house rules). This would cause a constitutional crisis as the House session would be done at that point, and couldn't start again without a special session, which has its own complicated rules.
4. Will a couple of Democrats from swing districts feel pressured to show up to save their seats? There are reports that this may happen.
5. The special election for House District 40B (a Plus 20 Democrat district) is "scheduled" for January 28, 2025. The date is the subject of a lawsuit as Gov. Walz did not follow the clear constitutional rules for a special election, but Steve Simon went ahead anyway.
6. In addition, House District 54A elected a Democrat by 14 votes. However, 20 cast ballots were accidentally destroyed. Whether a new election will be called is currently being litigated, and the judge promised to rule by...January 14, 2025.

The MN State Senate also has interesting times ahead. In November, Minnesota voters elected 34 Democratic Senators and 33 Republican Senators. However, one of the Democratic Senators died in December, and there is a special election in a few weeks. That district is solidly Democratic (probably Plus 40), and it is unlikely a Republican will win. In addition to this situation, one of the Democratic senators is currently being tried for burglarizing her stepmother's house (a fun story in itself). The senator is begging the court to postpone the trial. All Republican senators and several Democrat senators are on record recommending that Senator Burglar resign or not be seated. We'll see how that turns out.

Stay tuned for interesting times next week.