ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Republican Party announced on Tuesday, Feb. 4, that it will file recall elections for all 66 House Democrats who are currently boycotting the session.
Newly elected Chairman of the Minnesota GOP Alex Plechash said Tuesday that the party’s grassroots organizers officially started Monday night collecting the 25 signatures required in each district to submit recall petitions.
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“What are Democrats doing, carrying on the idea that they can hold the state hostage until March, or maybe longer, all while collecting nearly $10,000 a day in salaries and benefits?” Plechash said. “This isn’t a political game. This is about governing. It’s about ensuring that our state functions, that our kids get an education, that taxpayers aren’t swindled, that our government does its job.”
Plechash said that some of the districts, including DFL Leader Melissa Hortman’s district in Brooklyn Park, have collected the 25 required signatures, and that the GOP anticipates it will file the first batch of petitions on Monday, Feb. 10.
After the 25 signatures are collected, the petitions are submitted to Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office. The signatures would then be checked and the petitions would be submitted to the Minnesota Supreme Court. The Supreme Court then decides if the grounds for a recall are valid.
If the petitions are approved by the court, the Republican Party would then have 90 days to gather signatures from 25% of eligible voters in the district. These signatures would then go back to Simon for another review, and if they are approved, a recall election date would be set.
Jennifer DeJournett, executive director of the Republican Party, said the party suspects this could be a 10-month process from the time election contest lawsuits were filed in November to when a recall election could hypothetically be over.
“A recall process in the state of Minnesota is easy to start, just like a good marathon race,” she said. “It takes some kind of gumption in your heart to be able to get all the way through to the act, and we are prepared to do that. We’re willing to fight for all Minnesotans to make sure they have a voice. We want them to come to work.”
The DFL responded to the Republican announcement in a statement Tuesday.
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"Republicans have wasted weeks trying to overturn an election that they lost so that they can seize power that Minnesotans didn't give them at the ballot box," A DFL spokesperson said about recall efforts. "Today's stunt shows how desperate they have become after the courts struck down their unlawful power grab and ruled that Rep. Tabke was duly elected by Shakopee voters. Weeks after the judge's ruling, Minnesota GOP legislators need to answer whether they plan to overturn an election for partisan gain."
As of Monday, Feb. 3, Minnesota House leadership said they were still engaging in negotiations and had switched to team negotiations rather than just Leaders Hortman and Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring. One of the members who joined the Republican team is Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, who said he’s hoping team negotiations can get some movement in the right direction.
“Today was the first day of team negotiations, and we’re hopeful that maybe that will actually shake some things loose,” he said. “It’s a process, right? And we’ve been at the table this morning, going back to the table this afternoon. We’re hoping that this will result in some movement in the right direction. We’ve really done a disservice to the citizens of Minnesota by not convening the House and getting to work.”
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