Democrats and Republicans help Answer Man talk about boycotters getting paid

Dear Answer Man: Do the Democrat members of the Minnesota Legislature get wages and per diems during the time they are boycotting the state House of Representatives? Did Tim Walz get paid during the time he was campaigning for vice president? I'm curious since I had to work for my wages. — Angry Voter.

Dear Angry,

Work is, apparently, in the eye of the beholder.

Before I get to the DFLer's boycotting the start of the 2025 Legislative Session — something Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester calls "denying a quorum" — let me tackle the Tim Walz question first.

Yes, Gov. Walz was getting paid to be governor while he was campaigning to become vice president.

Now, I talked to state Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, about this. Drazkowski, no fan of Gov. Walz, said this: "If we have an official like that out of state or not doing their duties at the capitol, they shouldn’t be paid."

Being governor, he added, is a job that doesn't take days off.

Drazkowski did admit that he went to Wisconsin one day during the fall and did door-knocking to support the Trump-Vance campaign. The difference, Drazkowski said, is that the Legislature was not in session at the time.

All that said, there are phones and email, and I'd bet a dollar that Gov. Walz stayed in touch with staff and with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flannigan during his time campaigning for vice president, and gave Minnesota a fair amount of attention.

Plus, if we didn't allow our politicians to campaign for national office, there'd never be a Minnesotan as president.

Now, back to the boycotters — quorum deniers.

Liebling said she and her fellow Rochester state representatives — Kim Hicks and Andy Smith — still attend meetings about issues and are working, but they are trying to deny a quorum as a means to denying a takeover of the House by Republicans.

Before state Rep.-elect Curtis Johnson stepped aside since he did not live in the district to which he'd been elected — District 40B, a predominately DFL district in the northern Twin Cities suburb of Roseville — the House DFL and GOP had arranged for a power-sharing deal with the House split evenly at 67 seats for each party.

But once Johnson's win was vacated, and a new election needed to be called, House Republicans took their temporary one-seat advantage and decided to put their members in committee leadership positions and elect a Republican as Speaker of the House.

Liebling said she had been looking forward to the power-sharing deal. She was going to be co-chair of a committee, a committee that would have an even number of Republican and DFL members. That meant true bipartisanship would be needed to get anything done.

If the Republican's House leadership grab is allowed to stand — oral arguments will be heard in the state Supreme Court on Thursday — that will put the House in the hands of Republicans even if District 40B's special election, whenever that is held, ends up with a DFL winner, Liebling said.

But that's not the issue that truly concerns Liebling.

Another House race won by a DFL candidate is Shakopee-area House District 54B seat, where Brad Tabke won by 14 votes. But Republicans have complained that the win is not valid since 20 ballots were tossed in the trash. Republicans, Liebling said, are threatening not to seat Tabke and insist on a special election — a do-over — which would be an unprecedented action.

“It feels like a coup in the House that people are grabbing power that wasn’t given to them,” she said, adding that denying Tabke his seat would be disenfranchising 22,000 voters.

In the end, Liebling said she'd much rather be working in her offices and on the House floor in St. Paul, but instead she's working with her fellow DFL House members to ensure the 2024 election — one that saw Minnesota voters call for a split in the House — is upheld.

Liebling said she and other House DFLers are, in fact, working. And they are, in fact, getting paid their salaries, which are paid at regular intervals throughout the year, not just when they are in session. Legislators' yearly salary is just under $52,000.

And Gov. Walz earns — whether he's in St. Paul or angling to be vice president — an annual salary of $149,550.

My guess, Angry Voter, is that you see things differently.

Well, I guess the state's high court will decide whether or not the House DFLers go to work in St. Paul before any special elections or not. If they uphold the actions of the GOP, saying 67 can be a majority, then this boycott is over and the GOP will hold the House's levers of power, Liebling said. If not, the boycott will continue.

All I can say is, stay tuned to postbulletin.com for news of updates on this fight for control of the House. Eventually,

Send questions to Answer Man at answerman@postbulletin.com .