'Unprecedented abuse of power': Dem lawmakers shut down state capitol over GOP power grab

The Minnesota state legislature has yet to gavel in for its annual session, after House Democrats (locally known as the Democratic Farm-Labor Party, or DFL) are collectively denying the body from meeting basic attendance requirements.

NBC News reported Tuesday that last fall, Minnesotans elected 67 DFL members and 67 Republicans apiece to the House of Representatives, requiring both sides to negotiate a power-sharing agreement. But after Republicans successfully challenged the residency of one DFL representative, that member was ousted, triggering a January 28 special election. And after a dispute over absentee ballots in another DFL member's district threw their victory into question, House Republicans declared themselves to be in the majority.

Now, leaders of the DFL caucus are accusing their GOP rivals of dirty tricks in order to elect one of their own to the speakership. And because Minnesota statute requires 68 members to be present for a quorum, if all Democrats stay absent from the capitol, the GOP is unable to seat their speaker and appoint members to committees.

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"We have to accept election results even when we don't like them. And Republicans want to do this kind of crazy revisionist version where they just throw out election results if they don't like them, and we can't let them trample over our democracy in that way," said Rep. Melissa Hortman, who is the speaker-designate for the DFL. But her Republican counterpart, House Majority Leader Lisa DeMuth, argued that it was "no longer a tie."

"Someone broke the law. The court ruled that he could not take office," DeMuth said. "I think my Democrat colleagues are frustrated with that reality."

DeMuth is arguing that because one Democrat has been ruled ineligible due to the residency challenge, the quorum requirement has gone from 68 to 67 members present. But Minnesota Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon, who holds the speaker's gavel when the legislature is not in session, said the 68-member requirement for quorum still stands and that he has "no authority" to call the legislature into order. Democrats say they plan to stay out of the capitol in St. Paul until after the January 28th special election.

"Democrats are united in our will to fight Republican efforts to kick Representative Brad Tabke out of the Minnesota House," Hortman said. "We cannot allow Republicans to engage in this unprecedented abuse of power, and will use every tool at our disposal to block it."

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Click here to read NBC's report in full.