Short tempers, long debates: A year of trauma colors rancorous session at Minnesota Capitol
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To audible moans, DFL Rep. Erin Koegel called out colleagues for “harassing” comments and “jeers” toward her colleagues while urging them to be nicer to one another. Throughout a tense floor session featuring several hot-button topics that same day, Republican Rep. Pam Altendorf accused Democrats of “deceptive” moves and of stoking “political theater.”
On it went for several hours — hostility rising as Minnesota House members lurched toward a week apart from each other.
But it’s also been a scene that’s played out again and again this session. State lawmakers field emotional testimony on issues they say are critical in this moment: Preventing gun violence, helping people caught up in a federal immigration enforcement, fighting fraud or balancing the state’s budget.
They spar about the best way to solve the problem, or whether it’s a problem at all.
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One side casts blame and says the other doesn’t care. Committee chairs gavel members down for questioning the motives of their colleagues. And, often, bills then stall on a tied vote.
It’s become a rhythm — a tense one — during the first part of the legislative session.
After months of traumatic events in Minnesota, lawmakers returned for the session without one of the leaders of the tied House of Representatives. Some came in with emotional scars. Many also returned with feelings of resentment.
“I think that we have been through way more than we are able to manage in the last nine or 10 months, and it is spilling in in many ways to our work,” said Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul.
The fatal shooting of DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman, a school shooting in Minneapolis and an immigration enforcement surge have been central subjects as lawmakers try to fashion responses they hope can prevent repeat occurrences.
“People are reacting with short tempers in places where we wouldn’t necessarily do that, and it isn't a function of each person, but I think a function of the collective experience that we've had with a lot of violence and not much time together to deal with that,” Murphy said.
Talking to lawmakers, lobbyists and people called to testify at the Capitol, there’s an agreement that this session feels different.
“The tension you usually feel those last couple weeks has been evident since the first week, and I think it's because of everything that our state has been through,” said House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.
While lawmakers agree on some top issues facing Minnesota — school safety, fraud, affordability — solutions have so far been hard to come by.
“I think people don’t feel heard. And louder with the same message doesn’t mean you’re going to be heard,” Demuth said. “Agree that we’re not agreeing, or agree that maybe we can’t find a solution and then move on. I think we’re getting stuck in kind of a spin or a crazy cycle.”
For her, it’s a quandary. And the person she’d previously turned to for advice — former House Speaker Hortman — isn’t there to advise on how to lead through the second year of a tie.
“There are many times when with everything that we’ve faced, that I’ve wished I could just call her and say, ‘because of Team House, now what? How should we do this?’” Demuth said. “I don’t have anyone else that I can ask those questions of. And that goes way beyond just leading a caucus. It goes to the point of, how can we get the work done for Minnesota?”
To heighten the tension even more, dueling ethics complaints greet lawmakers upon their return. DFLers plan to file complaints over an incident in which GOP Rep. Elliott Engen was arrested on DWI charges and GOP Rep. Walter Hudson had his gun confiscated during the same stop as he rode in Engen’s car. Republicans plan their own inquiry over an alleged conflict of interest in bills introduced by DFL Rep. Alex Falconer of Eden Prairie.
Sen. Bill Weber, a Luverne Republican, said GOP lawmakers felt shut out during the DFL trifecta in the last Legislature.
“What we’re starting to see happen with the tone of the legislative session is that it's hard for some people to find respect for others because of how things have went,” Weber said.
Now they feel like they aren’t being taken seriously as they raise concerns about state spending and what Republicans call “serious problems” that have arisen.
“Whether we’re talking about paid family leave, we're talking about our school systems, we have financially broken our public schools with the mandates that the Legislature put on them these last three years, and unfortunately, nobody seems to want to step up and admit what they've done,” Weber said.
Democrats voiced frustrations, too. They worry about federal actions hitting home. They want Republican peers to vote with them to restrict guns and offer financial help to those impacted by “Operation Metro Surge.”
“Something really extraordinary happened in my community, something that I hope no community has to go through,” said Rep. Aisha Gomez. She has told her colleagues about how ICE operations affected her Minneapolis district. “For my community, for Alex (Pretti) and Renee (Good), after what we had been through over the last few months, it was like I couldn't just not share that with them.”
Gomez said she doesn’t expect her Republican colleagues will back restrictions to federal immigration efforts. But she is hopeful that there are other areas where Democrats and Republicans can come together.
“We probably aren't going to be able to come to an accord on agreeing about issues that are sort of tearing the country apart nationally,” Gomez said. “But amidst all of those things we disagree on, there's work to be done that's good work, and you can see it moving in little ways here and there around the Capitol.”
The clock’s ticking to finish that good work. Lawmakers are back after a holiday break. And the pressure will be on with six weeks left until their required May 18 adjournment.
