House GOP, DFL showing no signs of reaching power-sharing agreement
The acrimonious start to the 2025 Minnesota legislative session showed no signs of abating on Friday. Attorneys for House Republicans have until Tuesday to file a response to petitions filed with the Minnesota Supreme Court by DFL House leaders and DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon.
“They essentially want to take a two-week advantage and turn it into a two-year advantage in the Legislature, which is something we can’t accept,” DFL House Leader Jamie Long said in a joint interview with Republican House Majority Leader-designate Harry Niska on “At Issue with Tom Hauser.”
Niska says House Democrats could have shown up on the House floor and made those same arguments and still filed a petition with the Supreme Court.
“Not only could they have done that — come into the House and made those arguments — the law required them to come to work on Tuesday at noon,” Niska said. “That’s when the law says all members of the Legislature have to get to work. At noon. Democrats chose to break that law, not show up.”
Long says one of the reasons Democrats stayed away is because Republicans have threatened to not allow DFL Rep. Brad Tabke to take office.
“They are going to kick out Rep. Brad Tabke, and I hope Harry will answer the question today, yes or no?” Long asked Niska. “Right now he has won his election. He has won his recount. He has won the court case. You have now had three days to review the court decision. Will you or will you not allow Rep. Tabke to be seated?”
“The only person who is unseating Brad Tabke is Brad Tabke,” Niska responded. “I’ve been to the House three times, Brad Tabke has not taken his seat. There is a legal process that’s not done. There’s a contest about his election.”
The Republican candidate in that race, Aaron Paul, can appeal a Scott County judge’s ruling in that case to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Tabke won that race by 14 votes, but 20 ballots were thrown away without ever being counted. Attorneys for the two sides argued about whether those 20 ballots could have altered the race outcome.
Meanwhile, DFL House leaders tried to stir more controversy by complaining that House Republicans hired an attorney from Niska’s law firm to represent them in the Supreme Court battle over the quorum issue.
“It is a partner of his law firm,” Long said of Niska. “You could have chosen any other attorney to do this, but yet he chose to give taxpayer money to a partner of his own law firm for their legal defense.”
Niska says there is no conflict of interest because he won’t be involved as an attorney on the case.
“He’s suing the House,” Niska said of Long. “We’re choosing the best lawyers possible and we’re not interested in his advice on which lawyers to hire.”
It remains to be seen how much more complicated the House power struggle will get now that the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled late Friday that Gov. Tim Walz violated state law by calling a special election too soon in House District 40B. The DFL candidate who won that race in November was ruled ineligible to serve by a Ramsey County judge because evidence showed he didn’t live in the district.
The election was set for Jan. 28, but will now likely be pushed into February, leaving the House GOP with a 67-66 advantage for an even longer period of time.