People want so see Republicans finally stand up and fight for something! We’re sick and tired of the radical Democrats running our state and country into the ground.
President Trump has only been in office for 10 days now, but he’s showing how it’s done! Real leadership. Real fights.
But at the Minnesota House, Republicans are allowing Democrat obstructionists and the executive branch to completely take over the Minnesota House. All 66 Democrat House “members” have refused to show up since day one of the new legislative session…against a law that specifically states they needed to show up.
House Republicans did the right thing on the first day (January 14th) and removed the gavel from Secretary of State Steve Simon who tried presiding indefinitely over the Minnesota House and adjourning them unilaterally after declaring no quorum. Republicans then installed Rep Paul Anderson, the oldest member which is what MN Statute 3.05 requires, and they elected a Speaker, officers and started conducting business.
But last Friday, the all Democrat Supreme Court published a radical order declaring a quorum is always 68 members, regardless of vacancies. Republicans currently have a 67 to 66 majority due to Democrats cheating in the House District 40B election that left the seat vacant.
The Supreme Court stopped short of issuing a formal writ, stating “we assume that the parties will now conform to this order without the necessity of issuing a formal writ.” And that apparently was all that was needed for Republicans to completely cave to the obstructionist Democrats and effectively stall the Minnesota House from functioning.
On Monday, Secretary Steve Simon gaveled the House members in (only Republicans showed up again), declared no quorum and unilaterally adjourned them. Only one Republican member was seen speaking up against the action, Rep. Drew Roach. The Republican leadership said nothing.
Every day this week, at 3:30 pm, Secretary Simon gavels them in, finds no quorum and unilaterally adjourns the Minnesota House with no protest from the floor. Republicans bark at Democrats for not showing up, but at this point, it appears they are going to continue this charade until the House District 40B special election occurs and they have a 67 to 67 tie with Republicans.
House Republicans have completely bent the knee to these radical obstructionists and have given the Secretary of State full control of the Minnesota House. This is crazy!!!
Here’s what House Republicans should do:
- Ignore the Supreme Court’s three page order and MAKE THEM issue a formal writ before accepting their radical and unprecedented ruling. I’d say this is no longer an option though since they already conceded the Speaker position and allowed Secretary Simon to preside over them again.
- Ignore the Supreme Court’s order and appeal it to federal courts. Make this a bigger fight – the Republicans are clearly in the right on this issue and a court that isn’t full of Mark Dayton and Tim Walz appointees would see that. The Supreme Court does not have the right to shut down another branch of government! Once again, the time has probably already passed on this step since they’ve given up the Speaker position.
- Refuse to allow Secretary Simon to unilaterally adjourn them, just like they did on January 14th. If Simon leaves the rostrum, Republicans should put Rep. Paul Anderson as the presiding officer. Then they should make the motion to compel attendance of the absent members AND penalize the Democrats who aren’t at the Capitol by withholding their pay. This is a constitutionally sound approach. Article IV, Section 13 specifically states that the House can operate with less than a quorum for these purposes.
Here’s Article IV, Section 13:
What’s a mystery to us is that House Republicans know about this. In fact, Majority Leader Harry Niska even has a motion in the hopper that would enact penalties. But they seem unwilling to stand up to Steve Simon to pass it. They keep letting him unilaterally adjourn them.
I thought, perhaps there is a strategy at play we’re not seeing. Because all we see right now is Republicans continuously calling on Democrats to show up for work – which really doesn’t benefit anyone when those radicals show up to vote on things. Let them stay home if that’s what they’re going to do (with no pay!).
However, the most vocal member of the Republican Caucus, Rep. Walter Hudson, took issue with my tweet last night and clearly showed there is no grand strategy. In fact, it seems the reason they aren’t doing anything to push back is because they don’t think anyone will listen to them.
Republicans have a majority of the Minnesota House right now, all 67 of them are showing up to the Capitol, they have the Constitution at their desk and public support behind them, but they WON’T STAND UP TO SECRETARY SIMON!
It’s time they take a page out of the Donald Trump playbook and FIGHT!
