Doron Clark is sworn in to Senate, restoring DFL’s one-seat majority

DFL regains power of Senate, House remains in gridlock

Doron Clark, the winner of last week’s Senate District 60 special election in Minneapolis, took the oath of office on Monday, returning a one-seat majority to the DFL.

After the ceremony, Democrats voted to end a temporary power-sharing agreement with Republicans that was reached following the death of Sen. Kari Dziedzic in December. Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, was then elevated to majority leader.

“It is time to dissolve our power-sharing agreement,” Murphy said on the Senate floor, “but what we’ve experienced together in these last weeks, the ability to balance our interests, to work together in committees,  to build relationships with one another and to show Minnesotans the Senate is open (and) ready to do its work.”

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson had hoped Democrats would at least extend the power-sharing temporarily to show Minnesotans they can work together.

“I’m afraid what’s going to happen today when this power-sharing arrangement ends, we’re going to go right back into the partisanship we’ve been seeing over the past two years,” Johnson said in response to Murphy. “This has been a real experiment over the last three weeks.”

Clark sat down with KSTP Chief Political Reporter Tom Hauser last week to discuss what his election means in a Legislature with razor-thin margins.

“We’ll find common ground, continue to talk, continue to work together and, as a member of the DFL majority in the Senate, really advancing our priorities that we share across the state,” Clark said in an interview recorded for “At Issue.”

Clark — who has said his priorities are education and housing — will serve on the Education Finance, Higher Education, Judiciary and Public Safety, and Housing and Homelessness Prevention committees.