This press release from Minnesota Democrats is riddled with lies.

1) ”Democrats are prepared to deny the 68-member quorum required to conduct House business...”

No where in either the state constitution or state law is a quorum defined as 68 members. Rather, the constitution says, “A majority of each house constitutes a quorum…” While the denominator of a majority is usually 134, we currently only have 133 members because the Democrats ran a perjurer to represent a district he didn’t live in, and that perjurer has been properly barred from serving. A majority of 133 is 67, period.
 
This issue was resolved by the framers of our state constitution when an amendment to the document was offered that would have altered it to read as modern Democrats desire. The amendment was rejected after debate among delegates who explicitly discussed the implications and expressed their intent. A majority is “a majority of the members sworn in.”

2) “Democrats are prepared to [not show up for work] until successful power-sharing negotiations conclude with Republicans.”

There is no need to share power with a minority. Preliminary negotiations were predicated upon the assumption of a tie prior to the successful election contest which placed Democrats in a minority. They cheated. They got caught. And there are consequences.

3) “There are multiple instances of representatives being sworn in at a time other than the first day of session.”
 
This is a lie of omission, ignoring context. While individual members have occasionally been sworn in at unconventional times due to special circumstances, such as filling vacancies through special elections, a mass swearing-in of House members prior to the official start of the legislative session is unprecedented in Minnesota's legislative history. Dodging the first day of session for the expressed purpose of preventing the House from organizing (a goal they cannot hope to achieve) is an insidious abuse intended for a disordered purpose.

4) “Minnesotans voted for equal numbers of Democrat and Republican state representatives.”

We simply cannot know that. There is an ongoing election contest which has not been resolved where 20 ballots were tossed in the garbage with a 14-vote margin. Democrats have attempted to subvert the principle of secret ballots by guessing whose ballots were discarded and seeking public disclosure of how those residents voted. This is a wholly illegitimate way to determine an election. Whether the judge in the case reverses established precedent to enable the Democrat’s scheme is yet to be determined. But, in any case, the final arbiter of the question will be the House of Representatives as dictated by the Minnesota state constitution. Until then, the claim that Minnesotans voted for a tie in the House is both speculative and irresponsible. It’s a slap in the face of voters who deserve certainty regarding election outcomes.

5) “We would like to get to work on a bipartisan basis to tackle the challenges Minnesotans elected us to address.”
 
Their actions speak much louder than their words. This past week, they declared that their going “on strike” and “walking the picket line” in a vein and futile attempt to prevent the House from existing as such. Prominent figures like former House majority leader Ryan Winkler have made statements like, “[Republicans] cannot do one single thing… without 68 votes,” indicating there is no sincere intention to work in bipartisan fashion to pass anything unless Democrats are given power they have not to date earned.
 
Not to mention, if Democrats were interested in working in bipartisan fashion, they could have done so over the past two years. Instead, they ignored every Minnesotan we represent along with the voters in their own districts who voted against them. They rejected amendment after amendment in both chambers, ignored business owners and school districts who testified against their harmful policies, and ended the session by ignoring the state constitution and their own legislative rules by passing a 1400+ page omnibus bill which wasn’t even available to read.
 
Sorry, Lucy, we’re not kicking the football this time.
 
6) “Republicans are deeply frustrated that they are unable to call the House of Representatives to order and conduct business without collaboration…”
 
We’re sleeping well.

Democrats are frustrated that they got caught cheating in an election and lost the tie in the House as a result. Minnesota has no sympathy for them.
 
We will organize and start legislating on Tuesday whether our Democrat colleagues show up or not. They cannot stop us. The ultimate result of their desperate posturing will be further loss of confidence among Minnesotans and a toxic environment in which to govern over the next two years.
 
They’ve placed House Republicans in the position of negotiating with terrorists. And that’s deeply frustrating to the people of Minnesota who deserve to finally be heard after being ignored entirely for two years.