Capitol Letter for January 31, 2025

Welcome to our first Capitol Letter of 2025. Unless you've been avoiding news altogether, you likely know that the Minnesota Legislature has gotten off to a shaky start. At the core of it are 2 seats in question in the Minnesota House which would determine power in the House. 

First of all, DFL Representative Brad Tabke from Shakopee won his race by 14 votes, however 20 absentee ballots appear to have been tossed out due to an error in processing absentee ballots. Summarized nicely in the Minnesota Reformer: 

"A Scott County judge ruled Tuesday that DFL Rep. Brad Tabke of Shakopee won reelection in a contested election case that has major ramifications for the partisan balance of the state House. Tabke won in November by 14 votes, but in the process of auditing the election, Scott County staff discovered that 20 absentee ballots cast in the city of Shakopee were missing. Tabke’s Republican opponent in the House District 54A race, Aaron Paul, sued Tabke and requested a special election. During the trial, six voters whose ballots had been accidentally discarded testified and said they had cast their votes for Tabke. In her ruling, District Court Judge Tracy Perzel found that the missing ballots, if counted, would not have changed the election outcome, and denied Paul’s request for a special election. She also ruled that there was no “deliberate, serious or material” violations of Minnesota election law." 

Next, the House District 40B (Roseville, Shoreview) race has produced 2 different court rulings, the first of which is a ruling by a district court that the winning candidate did not live in the district. This then led to setting a special election, which was originally set for January 28. However, the MN Supreme Court ruled that Governor Walz set the date in error, which then leaves a vacancy of that seat further out into the session (we're hearing perhaps March 11 for the new special election). This vacancy means that House Republicans have a short term 67-66 advantage.

This has then led to differing positions by the parties as to what constitutes a quorum in order to convene the House and conduct business. The very-busy MN Supreme Court ruled this week that a quorum is a majority of the number of the members identified by law, which is 134. As a result, 68 members are required for a House quorum. Woosh - We're very grateful also to Peter Callaghan and MinnPost for covering these issues so thoroughly! (Please subscribe to this excellent nonprofit news source!)

So what's the bottom line here? This is democracy in action. MN Elections were certified and were found to be fair and accurate. Post-election audits found some mistakes to be corrected in the future, but none to the extent to overrule the will of the voters on election day. Statutes don’t always tell the full story when issues are new and complex. So the courts were called in and ruled and everyone must abide by the rule of law. Of course, those rulings can be appealed. But while tempers may flair, chairs are not flying and everyone is using the tools of democracy available to them. We've had confusion, debate, court filings and rulings - all within the scope of how we work to resolve disputes in a democracy.

Hopefully now, the politics of the situation will soon be resolved so the work of the people can commence. 

Michelle Witte, Executive Director

Copyright Minnesota House of Representatives: Photo by Andrew VonBank

LWVMN ADVOCACY

  • LWVMN is extremely pleased to welcome a new Capitol Pathways intern, Sheridyn Runs After, to support our advocacy this session. Sheridyn is pursuing a degree in Justice Administration with minors in Political Science, Indigenous and Dakota Studies, Literature, and Pre-Law. With a deep passion for criminal justice reform and Indigenous rights, Sheridyn is dedicated to advocating for policies that promote equity and representation. Her experience working within Tribal Courts and contributing to culture and language revitalization efforts has strengthened her commitment to justice and community advocacy. With the League, she hopes to further her understanding of legislative processes and policy development while supporting meaningful change.

  • LWVMN kicked off the beginning of the 2025 Legislative Session by joining the Minnesotans for Equal Rights coalition to renew our push for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. We were thrilled to be represented at the rally by three high school student leaders who spoke about the importance to our democracy of passing an inclusive and intersectional ERA.

  • In the Senate Elections Committee, Paul Huffman, LWVMN’s Election and Redistricting Policy Coordinator, shared our support for SF9 - a bill to establish an online system to claim the political contribution refund. Paul testified that modernizing the PCR program increases the participation of small dollar donors in our democracy and reduces the potential cost and labor in processing paper forms. This bill has a great chance of passing with bipartisan authors; its progress and additional bill introductions and hearings of note to LWVMN can be found on our Bill Tracker.  

  • Moreover, LWVMN is grateful to continue working with state partners to protect representative democracy from big money’s undue influence and enhance political equality for all citizens. On January 22, we co-sponsored a program with Clean Elections MN on Limiting the Power of Super PACs - Maine Voters Did In 2024, What Does It Mean for Minnesota? Harvard Law’s Lawrence Lessig & Maine State Senator Rick Bennett (R), both leaders in fighting corruption in our political system, laid out the legal journey ahead for Maine’s initiative. While the Supreme Court has approved Citizens United, it has not ruled on a subsequent appeals court ruling, holding that individuals and corporations can give unlimited amounts of money to super PACs. A ruling in favor of Maine’s initiative would set a new precedent nationwide.

  • If you would like to get more involved with our advocacy work, consider joining our Observer and Lobby Corps which meets every Monday from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm to discuss the latest Capitol updates, bills that we are following, and upcoming action opportunities. You can view our 2025 Legislative Preview here with information on our priorities and partners.

 
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