MN GOP responds to petitions debating House leadership
(ABC 6 News) – The Minnesota House of Representatives’ Republicans responded to last week’s petitions to unseat Lisa Demuth as Speaker.
RELATED: Republicans override Simon’s adjournment of House, elect Demuth as speaker – ABC 6 News – kaaltv.com
The Minnesota DFL and Secretary of State Steve Simon filed separate petitions with the state Supreme Court after the House, claiming a 67-person quorum was legitimate as long as one seat remains empty.
Simon and Democratic leadership asked the Supreme Court to declare that 68 people are still required for a quorum to conduct business.
The November election resulted in a House tied at 67-67, and top leaders from both parties started to work out a power-sharing agreement on the assumption that they would be evenly split this year. But a judge last month declared that a newly elected Democrat, Curtis Johnson, doesn’t live in his district. That gave Republicans a temporary 67-66 majority until a special election can take place.
On Jan. 21, attorneys representing Demuth, as well as Reps. Harry Niska and Paul Anderson, argued that a quorum could be defined by the number of legislative seats filled and vacant, or could be defined as a majority of existing legislators.
They argue that the State Constitution’s wording leans toward the latter definition.
Furthermore, the attorneys claim that the petitions to the Supreme Court should be denied because those petitions are asking the judiciary to make decisions about disputes that should be handled by legislators, in order to preserve separation between those powers of government.
The MN Supreme Court scheduled arguments to begin Thursday, Jan. 23.
The full response is embedded below:
