The Minnesota Legislature wrapped up its sixth special session of the year in under three hours Thursday. House Democrats refused to move forward with a Republican-sponsored bill that would allow lawmakers to selectively cancel some of Governor Tim Walz’s COVID emergency orders. Democratic Majority Leader Ryan Winkler said, “The urgency that we face is not our ability to nit-pick those executive powers of the governor. The urgency we face is a collective national action to fight the pandemic and save our economy.”
House Republican Minority Leader Kurt Daudt said he doesn’t know why the governor would *not* support the measure, “Because if he doesn’t want to take this step, then he really does care more about the power and control than he does about working across the aisle and working with the legislature to do what’s best for Minnesota.”
And in an unprecedented move, Senate Republicans today elected Democrat Dave Tomassoni from Chisholm to temporarily serve as Senate president — a move designed to protect Republicans’ majority from political “ripple effects”, if President-elect Biden taps Senator Amy Klobuchar for a cabinet post.