Democrats won a Minnesota state House special election Tuesday night, according to The Associated Press, restoring a tie in the chamber and bringing an end to the state legislature’s months-long power struggle.
The victory in the reliably Democratic 40B state House District, in the northern suburbs of St. Paul, means that control of the chamber will be tied, with Democrats and Republicans holding 67 seats each — and that the power-sharing agreement reached between the two parties in February is likely to be maintained.
According to AP projections, Democrat David Gottfried defeated Republican Paul Wikstrom in the special election.
A state court ruled that Curtis Johnson, the Democrat who won the district race in November, did not meet residency requirements and thus could not be seated, prompting the special election. (Johnson beat Wikstrom in November). Following Johnson’s resignation, Republicans gained a temporary one-seat majority in the state House.
Gottfried’s victory prevents Republicans from being able to more aggressively oppose Democratic priorities in the state government, where the Democratic Party currently holds the governorship and a slim one-seat majority in the Senate.
Tuesday’s special election is the latest chapter in an unusual drama in Minnesota legislative politics, which has included a Democratic walkout that turned into a weeks-long boycott of the legislative session, as well as a court ruling that left the seat vacant for months.
Republicans devised a strategy to seize control of the chamber after gaining a temporary one-seat majority following the court ruling against Johnson. However, state House Democrats staged a walkout in January to deny Republicans the necessary quorum to proceed with their plan. On January 14, the party’s lawmakers declined to attend the first day of the legislative session. (Later, the state Supreme Court rejected Republicans’ attempt to hold their own session).
For nearly three weeks, state House Democrats boycotted the chamber.
In February, Democrats and Republicans reached a new power-sharing agreement that assumed Democrats would win the March 11 special election, resulting in a 67-67 tie in the chamber.
Under the agreement, Republican state Rep. Lisa Demuth will serve as speaker for the next two years. The parties agreed to co-chair the state House committees, with an equal number of Democrats and Republicans serving on each.
Another aspect of the agreement was that state House Republicans would not take action to remove Democratic state Rep. Brad Tabke, whose narrow 14-vote victory in November was called into question after election officials discovered they had accidentally thrown out 21 absentee ballots without counting them.
