Democrats will likely sue but aren’t saying how soon, after Lieutenant Governor Michelle Fischbach continued in her role as a state senator on the first day of the legislative session. Saint Louis Park Senator Ron Latz says the Minnesota Constitution prohibits anyone from holding two offices at the same time. “I think there is an uncertainty now about everything that the Senate does, kind of like the original sin,” says Latz. “I mean, she [Fischbach] gaveled us in…. I say she didn’t have the legal authority to gavel us in.”
Republicans contend there’s ample legal precedent that a lieutenant governor can also serve in the Minnesota Senate. Democrats respond a 1972 constitutional amendment overrode that. Senate Democratic Minority Leader Tom Bakk says, “This is not business as usual. You can’t have the lieutenant governor of the state of Minnesota acting as the president of the state Senate.”
More in this interview with Sen. Latz: