MINNEAPOLIS — Split power in the Minnesota House will change the state’s political landscape.
Carlton College Political Science Professor Steven Schier said the last time the house was evenly divided was in 1979.
“History suggests the differences are so great between the parties, we’re going to have battles in the valley, not peace,” Schier said.
House leaders announced this week all of the committees will be co-chaired by one Democrat and one Republican, which Schier said is an unusual way to govern. Committee and division membership will also be equally divided between both parties.
Schier said there’s always a possibility that bipartisanship will triumph, but he’s not confident it will for sure happen.
“The idea that a tied legislature can come to some sort of consensus given how different the party agendas are is pretty unlikely which means as happened in 1979, there was a special session where finally a lot of legislative issues were resolved that’s probably what’s going to happen with the budget,” Schier said.
He said Minnesotans will need to be patient because things won’t get done as quickly.
“I think what you can expect from this session is that it will start relatively peacefully but the future has storm clouds ahead. There will be big fights over power,” he said.
Schier said their first big test will be selecting a speaker, the second will be the budget.
“There could be a rotating speakership where every week, or every month there’s a different speaker. This all remains to be seen because we’ve never faced a situation quite like this,” he said.
He said there is a possibility there will be two speakers. A deal was struck in 1979, to elect a speaker, a decision he said wasn’t popular amongst Democrats.
“There was a power sharing deal Democrats were given the chair positions of important committees, appropriations and tax in return for electing a Republican as Speaker of the House,” he said.
Schier said he believes both parties will be looking for any possibility to get the majority, which is why Republicans are challenging the state on Shakopee’s election. He said something similar happened the last time the house was split.
“Also in 1979, the whole session was made turbulent by an election challenge to someone who had been elected. Well guess what, we’re starting with an election challenge in Shakopee,” he said.
He said the two political parties had very different agendas, making it hard to make policy. Schier said he thinks pressure will build as lawmakers get further into session.