There's a battle brewing in the Minnesota House and they're not even in session yet. It's still unclear whether or not House Democrats will be at the State Capitol in St. Paul when the legislative session kicks off in one week.
DFL House Speaker Designate Melissa Hortman (Brooklyn Park) said that she's hopeful they will still agree to a power-sharing situation with Republicans even after threats that Democrats won't show up next week if that doesn't happen.
"One week is an eternity in the legislative session," Hortman told WCCO's Chad Hartman on Tuesday. "Usually you have a little conflict before you get to resolution and that's the stage we're in."
Republicans hold a 67-66 plurality ahead of a special election for a House seat on January 28 after a judge ruled that the Democrat who won in Roseville didn't actually live in that district and violated state law.
Hortman says she's open to hearing proposals from her GOP colleagues and says Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth (Cold Spring) should "lay out" a plan if they think the first weeks of session should look different because Republicans have that one seat edge.
"We've got to have assurances that when we get back to 67-67, we go to power sharing, because it doesn't make any sense to have a two-year power agreement or power situation based on a two-week set of time," says Hortman.
The Roseville seat is almost surely going to remain in DFL hands which won that race by over 30 points in the November Election. But until the special election takes place, it's the GOP in power in the Minnesota House.
Hortman adds that Republicans will likely continue efforts to oust Democrat Brad Tabke from his seat in a race still to be decided by the court system after Dakota County misplaced at least 20 ballots in a race separated by only 14 votes.
"Why they want to take advantage of this two-week period is they want to kick him out, and part of the reason that we're contemplating our options is we think that's wrong," Hortman explains.
Demuth has gone on record as saying "Every vote needs to count."
As for what's next? That's not known even to Hortman, who says she hasn't gotten a response from Demuth.
"I made an offer on Sunday and so I would happily entertain a counteroffer," she says. "I think it would be great if they put a counteroffer together."
Demuth told WCCO's Chad Hartman on Monday she doesn't think that's necessary.
"At this point there is no need for a power-sharing agreement because there is not equal power in the state of Minnesota," she said.
But Hortman says the DFL is willing to negotiate.
"One of them is denying quorum, one of them is filibuster, I think you've seen that used to a great extent here in Minnesota recently," she says. "We haven't ruled anything out. Everything's on the table."