The state House of Representatives held their fourth floor session of 2025 this afternoon. It was a pro-forma session conducted to satisfy the requirements of the state Constitution, Art. 4, Sec. 12, which states,
Neither house during a session of the legislature shall adjourn for more than three days (Sundays excepted)…without the consent of the other house.
As usual, no Democrats attended today’s session and they have vowed to stay away until at least March.
Thursday will mark a big day in the crisis with the state Supreme Court taking up the issues of what’s a “quorum” and who is really in charge of the state House.
You will recall that one of the parties to Thursday’s lawsuit is the MN Secretary of State, Steve Simon. Sec. Simon continues to labor under the delusion that he is still the presiding officer of the House, which exists in some sort of suspended animation, awaiting his triumphant return to the dais.
If Simon is, somehow, correct, his session of the 2025 House has now expired, owing to his failure to convene the body every three days as constitutionally required.
The state’s constitutional crisis continues to be fought on the House Floor and in the courtroom, but also continue on another front: the media.
The latest round in the media battle began on Friday, when House DFL leaders presented their 2025 legislative priorities. The event took place in Minneapolis as Democrats are careful to not set foot inside the capital city of St. Paul, while Republicans are still in charge. A video of the event can be seen here.
You can read the DFL agenda here. To save you the trouble, it’s just a warmed-over rehash of the stuff they passed in the previous two years when they were still in charge.
As with all these media encounters, the Democrats’ canned talking points are less interesting than the interactions with reporters on hand. Q&A begins at the 9:58 mark. Although you can’t always hear the questions asked, the answers prove to be unintentionally illuminating.
Democrats have vowed to stay away until March, and in the video (15:02 mark) Democratic leader Melissa Hortman declares that the first seven weeks of session are useless, anyway. She repeats the claim at 18:58. Well, in that case, why not reduce the length of the session every year and save the taxpayers millions of dollars?
Most of the principals appeared later on Friday on public television’s Almanac program. Gov. Walz is first up at the 6:50 mark.
[Changing topics, at the 10:50 mark, Walz is asked about pervasive fraud in state government. At 11:35 Walz says, “I’m as frustrated as anybody.” But only he was in a position to do anything about it.]
At 18:05, all four of the Republican and Democratic House and Senate leaders appeared jointly on the Almanac program. At 19:16 Hortman deliberately misconstrues the Supreme Court ruling on House 40B. At 19:30 show host Eric Eskola openly scoffs.
KSTP-5 also had legislative leaders in studio for their Sunday Morning At Issue program (begins at 11:25).
The war continues to rage on all fronts.