If this year’s election results, the Minnesota House will be headed toward partisan parity for the first time since 1979.
Governments divided between parties already find it difficult to agree on many issues. How did the power sharing work last time?
Political observers and lawmakers who served during the last tied House of Representatives say Democratic-Labor and Republican House leaders are already off to a much better start in negotiations than they were more than four decades ago.
“Ultimately it will come down to some of the personalities involved,” said former Assemblyman Lyndon Carlson, a DFLer from Hennepin County and Minnesota’s longest-serving lawmaker. “My impression is that the two leaders on the House side — at least as an outside observer — appear to be working relatively well together.”
Current House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and House Republican Leader Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring have already announced that committees will be co-chaired and evenly split between the parties. While the speakership question remains, previous negotiations have not been nearly as public or acrimonious as in the past.
The Power Sharing Agreement of 1978-1979
Before the parties reached a power-sharing agreement in 1978-79, it took six weeks of grueling negotiations between House Independent Republican caucus leader Rod Searle of Waseca and DFL caucus leader Irv Anderson, a representative of International Falls.
And even then, the House didn’t elect a speaker until almost a week after the 1979 session.
In his 1990 book about the tied house, “Minnesota Standoff: The Politics of Deadlock,” Searle paints a picture of Anderson as a tough negotiator who was not afraid to stand up, a trait that Carlson says he may have considered union has picked up. leader in the paper mill of his hometown. Searle, on the other hand, had a more “reserved style,” said Carlson, who was present at the negotiations.
Mary Murphy, Minnesota’s longest-serving female lawmaker, was serving her second term as the House tied for the first time.
“I think there will be power sharing, but it won’t be by the same rules,” said Murphy, a DFLer who represented a Duluth-area district from 1977 to 2023. difference.”
How did it happen?
Until half a century ago, partisan ties were not possible in the 135-seat Minnesota House. And when a panel of judges redrew the district map in 1972 to include as many as 134 seats, the possibility of partisan parity was reportedly considered unlikely.
“This couldn’t happen in a hundred years,” a judge reportedly said, according to Searle’s 1990 book.
But just six years later, exactly that happened. In what some political writers called the “Minnesota Massacre,” more than 30 DFL representatives lost their seats in the 1978 election, causing the party to lose its 100-seat supermajority in the House of Representatives, resulting in a tie of 67- 67 with the Republicans – then known as the Independent. Minnesota Republicans.
Republicans had struggled nationally in the years following Nixon’s Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, but the party began making new gains thanks to a fiscally conservative message centered on cutting taxes.
Like this upcoming session, the 1979 House tie came with an asterisk because of election challenges.
While initial election results produced a 67-67 split, the results of one race won by an independent Republican were challenged in court. St. Paul Rep. Bob Pavlak had been accused of campaign law violations, and DFL members tried to disqualify him from office.
But before the hearing, a Ramsey County judge ruled in Pavlak’s favor, appearing to put the matter to rest and leaving the tie intact. However, it would reappear later in the session.
Currently, House Republicans have challenged or plan to challenge the results of two races. If they win in any of these lawsuits, they could gain a majority in the House of Representatives.
How did they decide to share power?
Before the parties reached a power-sharing agreement, it took six weeks of negotiations in the final weeks of 1978 between Searle with the Republicans and Anderson with the DFL.
The parties went back and forth with offers on various proposals to split control of the commissions. At one point they considered the possibility of a co-speakership until they realized it would not be constitutional.
By the time the session started, they were close to an agreement, but nothing was finalized. The House did not elect a speaker until almost a week after the 1979 session.
Minnesota Secretary of State Joan Growe served as speaker for a few days after calling the session on January 3, 1979. She could only preside over House sessions and could not appoint members to committees.
The parties then reached an agreement within the first week of the session, giving Independent Republicans the speaker’s seat and Democrats three top committees: Appropriations, Rules and Taxes. Searle was elected chair on a 67-66 vote after DFL Rep. Richard Kostohryz of North St. Paul was absent following a heart attack.
Although as part of the deal, independent Republicans gave up some of the speaker’s powers. The DFL-led Rules Committee would have the power to assign bills to committees if their chairmen reject the speaker’s order, giving them more power over the legislative process. Democrats also controlled the most powerful committees.
At the time, Pioneer Press Legislature reporter Bill Salisbury wrote that the IR caucus paid a “high price” for the speakership by giving the DFL control of three of the four “cornerstones of power” in the House of Representatives, Searle notes in his book. However, Searle continued to maintain that there was sufficient control over the committees and speakership for an effective compromise to be formed.
How did it go? What have they done?
Much of the session went smoothly in most cases, although like many sessions with divided government, it came to a chaotic end in May and the governor had to call a special session so lawmakers could finish their work.
Carlson said lawmakers from both sides treated each other respectfully and did not try to take advantage of colleagues who had commitments that drew them away from the Capitol.
Carlson recalled Searle assuring Anderson that he would not take controversial action if Carlson attended his grandfather’s funeral in South Minneapolis for a few hours. Although Anderson, not taking any chances, still had a House DFL staffer parked in front of the church, ready to give Carlson a ride if Searle tried to arrange a quick ride.
“It’s a people-oriented institution,” Carlson said of the House of Representatives, noting that public rhetoric doesn’t always match the respect lawmakers have for each other in more personal situations.
Chaotic end of the session
What messed things up in the last ten days of the session was the return of Pavlak’s campaign problems. While the House DFL agreed not to appeal to the state Supreme Court, the Senate DFLers paid for an appeal themselves.
The Supreme Court ruled in May of that year that Pavlak had violated campaign laws by spreading false information about his opponent, and asked the legislature to decide his fate. Pavlak became ill and collapsed on the floor of the House of Representatives from the stress related to the court ruling, Searle wrote. Within a week, DFLers voted to expel him from the chamber, giving them the majority.
On the last day of the 1979 session, lawmakers adjourned in chaos as Searle and independent Republicans attempted to reinstate Pavlak to the House of Representatives minutes before the midnight deadline to pass bills.
Republican Gov. Al Quie eventually called a special session after the suspension so lawmakers could pass remaining bills, including a transportation budget.
A DFLer subsequently won Pavlak’s seat in a post-session special election, giving the party a 68-66 majority.
Anderson died on November 17, 2008. Searle died on January 5, 2014.
What’s next for the upcoming session?
If the House of Representatives is still tied at 67-67 when the Legislature convenes on January 14, 2025, lawmakers will have different approaches to sharing power. So far, the deals they’ve announced bear no resemblance to what IR and DFL lawmakers put together more than four decades ago.
If the parties cannot reach an agreement by Jan. 14, Secretary of State Steve Simon will serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives in a largely ceremonial capacity. But they will have to figure out who will be Speaker if the House is to function.
It will be an odd year in the Legislature, so lawmakers must pass a two-year state budget before the end of the session on May 19. That means Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives could risk a government shutdown after the June 30 election. constitutional deadline if they don’t find a way to work together.
