Capitol Letter for February 7, 2025

Last week, we wrote about the shaky start to the 2025 Legislative Session due to two Minnesota House seats in question. Caucus leaders ended the “Great 2025 Minnesota House Quorum Wars” and agreed to a power-sharing agreement, a little over a month before the March 11 special election in District 40B which could bring the chamber back to a 67-67 tie and shared committee leadership. During the amicable House session on February 6, Speaker Lisa Demuth gave unifying remarks as the first person of color to be elected Minnesota Speaker of the House. The stalemate has ended and the two parties will now get back to work legislating for the people. The crucial task of agreeing on a budget has now begun, and you can follow along and join us as an Observer and Lobby Corps member!

We would also like to start including updates from the federal level as they relate to the actions we can take as voters and how our state officials are helping to protect Minnesotans from potential harm. Yesterday, Attorney General Keith Ellison joined a coalition of 12 attorneys general in releasing the following statement in response to the U.S. Department of the Treasury granting Elon Musk and “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) staffers access to sensitive payment systems containing Americans’ personally identifiable information. Here is our national statement on recent federal action: LWV Condemns Trump Administration’s Weaponization of Government Against Americans

Here at LWVMN, we also are about to launch two more opportunities for our statewide members to navigate through these challenging times. Be sure to open and read our All Member News this coming Monday, February 10, to learn about our new Fired Up Fridays, where we'll invite members to join us in learning how we can use our personal power to act on current issues and offer a nonpartisan guided conversation to share our concerns. And we’re also planning a webinar to help better understand how state and local laws and policies can protect human and civil rights, and even environmental protections, if federal laws are changed. We still have powerful voices in our democracy - so let's work together and use them!

Copyright Minnesota House of Representatives: Photo by Michele Jokinen

 

US Capitol and executive action

As of January 29, President Donald Trump has signed 45 Executive Orders. Presidents frequently use executive orders (EOs) to move their policy agendas forward, using what powers they believe they have available to them. Here's a great graph to compare EOs by recent presidents. However, as of January 30, at least 5 of President Trump's EOs have been challenged in the courts, some resulting in a temporary pause. Brookings provides updates and a tracking tool on these regulatory changes, and the Democracy 2025 Response Center has real-time analysis on the impacts of these executive actions on our democracy and status of current court challenges. These and other great fact-based resources allow us to better understand the changes being proposed and to reach out to our elected officials to share our questions and concerns. 

LWV File Photo

 

LWVMN Advocacy

Paul Huffman, LWVMN’s Election and Redistricting Policy Coordinator, testified in support of SF569, a resolution memorializing Congress to overturn Citizens United. As Paul writes, “There is arguably no more urgent matter in reinforcing the foundations of democracy than ensuring that every individual’s voice is heard equally, and no one can distort or subvert democracy by virtue of their wealth. Determining that corporations and associations are not “persons” for the purposes of election campaigns is critical to supporting these principles.”

Observer Reports

  • LWVMN Election and Redistricting Policy Coordinator Paul Huffman

    SF 634: Allowance for cities of the first class to hold elections in other than even years (Sen Bahr (R); Sen Cwodzinski (DFL) co-author). Currently Minnesota statute 205.07 allows cities, towns, and school districts to have elections in even years, concurrent with a state general election, with the ability for local governments to opt to hold their elections in odd-years. (Township elections in March of odd number years are not affected.)

    The proposed bill would ONLY allow cities of the first class to hold elections in an odd-numbered year. All local governments other than cities with over 100,000 residents would be required to hold their local elections in an even numbered year concurrent with the state-wide general election. The stated objective of the bill is to increase voter participation in local elections. A secondary, practical effect of the bill would be that 3 of the 5 cities currently using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), would be prohibited from doing so because the cities are less than 100,000 people.

    There were 2 testifiers:

    > MN School Boards Association/Association of Metropolitan School Districts opposed as this was an unnecessary mandate on school districts regarding how they run their elections. This would force 25 school districts to move to even year elections.

    > League of Minnesota Cities: Opposed based on the cities that decide they would prefer to hold elections in odd years in order to get local messages across and not be distracted by national elections; also preservation of RCV option.

    Sen Weber, not a member of the committee, was present to ask questions of LMC whether some local jurisdictions might prefer odd year elections to keep turnout down.

    Sen Cwodzinski noted he co-authored and supported the bill as he believed it was a way to increase voter turnout. He also pointed out that running an odd-year election for a medium sized school district would cost the district the equivalent of one full-time teacher. (School districts are responsible for running their own elections when they do not coincide with a general election.)

    Sen Koran provided a personal example of a township in rural Minnesota that went from a spring odd-year election to an even year election, and the resultant increase in turnout and civic participation.

    Sen Bahr stated that he had spoken to members of school boards and local governments regarding his proposal, however he had not heard objections until the hearing and was unaware of the impact on RCV. He also noted that moving the elections to odd years would save significant cost for local governments in running additional elections.

    The bill was laid over for potential inclusion in an elections omnibus.

  • LWVMN Election and Redistricting Policy Coordinator Paul Huffman

    SF 529: Constitutional Amendment for free, fair, and equal elections (Sen Dibble):  This bill proposes an amendment to Article I of the MN state constitution to add the right that "Elections shall be free, fair, and equal. No civil or military power shall, at any​ time, interfere with the free exercise of the right to vote."  According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, this or similar language appears in about 29 other states including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, South Caroline, Utah and Wyoming.  This language can be useful in challenging government actions, including gerrymandering of electoral districts, that impact elections and electoral representation.

    There was significant discussion and amendments proposed by minority members of the committee regarding adding requirements to the proposed amendment to require "transparency" (Matthews), "integrity" (Lucero), "ensuring one eligible citizen, one vote" (Lucero), and "secure" elections (Matthews).  All of the proposed amendments were defeated on party line votes. 

    Sen Limmer proposed tabling the bill to allow more time for review and consideration of the proposed constitutional amendment.  This amendment has been introduced by Sen Dibble in the past; however it is not clear whether it has ever gotten a hearing.   The discussion indicates the likely lines of opposition to this constitutional amendment were it to be placed on the ballot. 

    SF 529 passed on a party-line vote and was sent to the Senate Rules Committee.

 
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