Leaders of both parties in the fractured Minnesota House are scheduled to meet later Monday to discuss the possibility of a power-sharing agreement on the eve of the legislative session.
Right now, Republicans hold a 67-66 advantage, but Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, says 68 is needed for a quorum in order to officially swear members in.
This all comes after Democrats were privately sworn in Sunday in an early, private ceremony at the Minnesota History Center. And that's a move that Republicans criticized as illegitimate.
Democrats continue to say they will not show up until Speaker Designate Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) agrees to share power as Speaker with the DFL Speaker Designate Melissa Hortman (Brooklyn Park).
Demuth spoke to WCCO's Chad Hartman Monday and said the negotiations can still happen after the session begins.
"Those discussions can go forward," Demuth explains. "They can go forward today. They can go forward tomorrow. But to come in and say we will hold the legislature hostage by not providing a quorum because we don't like the reality, is not the way to govern in the State of Minnesota. But that is exactly what we're seeing from Democrats right now."
Hortman, speaking Monday afternoon to reporters, is offering a deal to Republicans.
"Democrats have offered a compromise that would allow Republicans to conduct themselves as though they are a majority even though they don't have 68 votes for the weeks of the session where they have that one seat edge, and then after we return to 67-67, we would revert to the power sharing agreement that we negotiated," Hortman offered up.
As for Sec. of State Simon's role? Demuth says he needs to step out of the fight. Simon has said he won't be swearing anyone in Tuesday unless there's a required quorum of 68, and Republican Party leaders have accused Simon of favoring his own party.
"My expectation is that he wouldn't do that," says Demuth. "He needs to recognize the membership of the House of Representatives and allow us to do our work. I would hope he would not stay in the way or stand in the way of that."
Speaking to Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News Monday, Hortman says she is still hopeful they'll agree to a deal before Tuesday at noon when the legislature is required to meet and start the session.
"We did have some conversations yesterday, some offers went back and forth," she said. "We're meeting again today. I'm very hopeful that we'll resolve this. I think that all of the members would much prefer to be collaborating, working together rather than spending our time kind of battling it out with each other."
Hortman also summed up chances that her caucus members will show up.
"Well, I still think it's 50/50," Hortman says. "We have negotiations later today, generally it's the last minute when folks reach an agreement. The Republicans only have 21 days from now that they could possibly exert one vote advantage. And so I hope they don't want to spend that 21 days fighting with us."
Those 21 days are the time until a special election would settle a residency dispute in Roseville, where a judge ruled the DFL winner of that race didn't live in the district and therefore cannot hold the seat legally in Minnesota. It's a heavily-DFL district so expectations are the Democrats would hold that seat.
In the Minnesota Senate where seats are tied, both sides have agreed to share control of the body.