The power dynamic has changed once again in the Minnesota Legislature.

The State House is now split 67-67 with the newest member being DFLer David Gottfried. He won the special election in House District 40B Tuesday against GOP opponent Paul Wikstrom for the seat representing Roseville and Shoreview.

What will change now that the house is split? We know the Speaker of the House will continue to be GOP Rep. Lisa Demuth. And under a bipartisan power-sharing agreement reached earlier this year, the GOP will also keep a majority on a new committee focused on proposals to fight fraud and abuse in government-funded programs.

But other committees will come under joint leadership with even numbers of Republicans and Democrats represented. Those committees will have co-chairs. That rule applies to conference committees formed to iron out differences between Senate and House bills.

Former House speaker DFL Rep. Melissa Hortman spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about the power shift on Morning Edition Wednesday.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full interview by clicking the player button above.

The DFL says it's time “for Republican colleagues to leave the partisan games behind.” What is being referred to?

Hortman: On the House floor right now, Republicans keep bringing bills that only have Republican votes behind them and not enough votes to pass the House. They only have 67 members and it takes 68 members for a bill to pass, so they keep bringing divisive social issues to the floor, having pretty ugly debates on them, then losing on the vote on the bill, and then reconsidering the vote on the bill and putting the bill on the table.

It's just a big waste of time when we could be working together to accomplish a budget. All of us knew that this special election would turn out this way, and so it is well past time to begin working together.

Have relationships been damaged because of all the chaos this session?

Hortman: At the Capitol, they always say politics makes strange bedfellows, so somebody that you vote against today could be on your bill tomorrow. And I think that’s part of the reason we refer to making legislation as like making sausage — is it's messy, and that's how the framers designed it. Democracy is not supposed to be clean and orderly and kind and gentle. We are supposed to battle it out. And I think like most Minnesotans, we don't like conflict. So we don't like that part but it is part of the process. It's a normal and probably healthy part of the process.

The power-sharing agreement says committees will be co-chaired instead of having a single leader. How will agenda setting work?

Hortman: When the Democrat is chairing the committee, the Democrat will set the agenda. When the Republican is chairing the committee, the Republican will set the agenda. They will alternate the gavel daily.

I'll be meeting with leader Demuth this [Wednesday] morning to determine timelines. If all committees will be chaired by Democrats on Tuesday next week, or whether we'll do half of the committees Republican, half Democrat to get the pattern going. We're not all one day, one party, but that's how it will go.

And then, most importantly, to get a bill out of committee, you will have to have a vote from members of both parties. So we'll stop this practice of Republicans jamming bills through that only have Republican support. It's time for us to be working on things that actually can pass and would contribute to us having a state budget on time.

A gavel switching between parties will slow down an already lengthy operation. What do you think the odds are of a special session?

Hortman: I don't think it's necessary because we have a surplus in the current biennium and in the one we're budgeting for. Certainly we have troubling signs on the long-term economic horizon and we've got to do what we can. But for the budget that we have to balance together and have done by May 19, it’s a budget where we've got more than a $1.5 billion surplus projected.

If we can't agree on a budget in this kind of environment, that would be a shame. I think that if people are committed to not tying unrelated issues to the budget and simply looking at the math of what's best for the people of Minnesota, we can come together with a balanced package.

Talking about less policy, perhaps, and more just dollars and cents?

Hortman: We can do policy, we just have to do policy that has bipartisan support. In the past, we did great policy on opioids. We made insulin more available for people who needed emergency insulin. We did an overhaul of how we treat vulnerable adults in Minnesota. Those were all bipartisan things that went through a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. So we certainly can do lots of policy.

There's just certain things we can't do. We can't change people's opinions on the base values that make them a Democrat or Republican. So those are the issues we should leave on the sidelines and work on the places where we can get things done for the people.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.