It seems to me that the way out of this mess is for ordinary Minnesotans to step up and demand that the MN GOP caucus and MN DFL caucus get together and resolve this standoff. Minnesotans don’t need this.
You can look up who your current MN House member is on the MN House website and send them an e-mail.
I suggest something like the following:
Rep. (last name of state representative),
As your constituent, I am deeply concerned about the current partisan standoff going on between the House GOP and the House DFL caucuses.
It seems to me that the only way to end the current impasse is for both caucuses to give something up and compromise somewhere in the middle.
Please work with your colleagues in both caucuses to negotiate a deal to end the current standoff so that the MN House can do the important work it needs to do for the people of Minnesota. That is your first and foremost duty as my representative in the Minnesota House.
Many thanks for your consideration of my thoughts on this.
Given that this sort of discussion is the explicit goal of one of the groups, I cannot recommend this verbiage. I do recommend contacting your representative, but this email would only benefit a DFLer emailing a conservative Rep.
"**When the number, of which an assembly may consist, at any given time, is fixed by constitution,** and an aliquot proportion of such assembly is required in order to constitute a quorum, the number of which such assembly may consist and not the number of which it does in fact consist, at the time in question, is the number of the assembly, and the number necessary to constitute ae quorum is to be reckoned accordingly."
The number of the Minnesota House is NOT fixed by constitution. Per Article IV, Sec 2, "The number of members who compose the Senate and House of Representatives shall be fixed by law." This axiom of Cushing's isn't applicable to Minnesota.
To the extent that Mr. Cushing goes on to try to apply this principle to the federal House of Representatives (whose number is also fixed by law rather than by straightforward constitutional statement), he was writing in 1857, but was overruled by the decision of the House in 1861.
No wonder Sec. Simon only included a partial quote!
I only found out because I was using "DFL" freely on an internet politics forum (The Neutral Zone on the TrekBBS, which, thank God, has since been hard-reset, taking all my childish bad takes with it), and eventually somebody stopped me and asked what the heck I was on about. Came as a complete shock to me.
Happened to me when I was in college in St Louis. Talking politics with friends and folks were saying “GOP this” and “GOP that,” and when I started saying “DFL this” and “DFL that,” I got the blankest stares ever.
And yeah Leeann Chin is local too. A high school friend-of-a-friend was Leeann Chin’s grandson, and when I brought it up in a different conversation in college I got the exact same blank stares.
So this is why DFL and Leeann Chin occupy similar places in my brain.
Very good analysis, James! It will be interesting to see what happens now.
It seems to me that the way out of this mess is for ordinary Minnesotans to step up and demand that the MN GOP caucus and MN DFL caucus get together and resolve this standoff. Minnesotans don’t need this.
You can look up who your current MN House member is on the MN House website and send them an e-mail.
I suggest something like the following:
Rep. (last name of state representative),
As your constituent, I am deeply concerned about the current partisan standoff going on between the House GOP and the House DFL caucuses.
It seems to me that the only way to end the current impasse is for both caucuses to give something up and compromise somewhere in the middle.
Please work with your colleagues in both caucuses to negotiate a deal to end the current standoff so that the MN House can do the important work it needs to do for the people of Minnesota. That is your first and foremost duty as my representative in the Minnesota House.
Many thanks for your consideration of my thoughts on this.
Best,
[Name]
[Address]
[Phone Number]
Given that this sort of discussion is the explicit goal of one of the groups, I cannot recommend this verbiage. I do recommend contacting your representative, but this email would only benefit a DFLer emailing a conservative Rep.
Secretary Simon may have miscited Mason's; his quote pulls from Cushing's Law Practice of Legislative Assemblies (9th Ed.), p. 100, § 261.
Online text available: https://name.umdl.umich.edu/aew3838.0001.001
Hoooooly buckets look at that context:
"**When the number, of which an assembly may consist, at any given time, is fixed by constitution,** and an aliquot proportion of such assembly is required in order to constitute a quorum, the number of which such assembly may consist and not the number of which it does in fact consist, at the time in question, is the number of the assembly, and the number necessary to constitute ae quorum is to be reckoned accordingly."
The number of the Minnesota House is NOT fixed by constitution. Per Article IV, Sec 2, "The number of members who compose the Senate and House of Representatives shall be fixed by law." This axiom of Cushing's isn't applicable to Minnesota.
To the extent that Mr. Cushing goes on to try to apply this principle to the federal House of Representatives (whose number is also fixed by law rather than by straightforward constitutional statement), he was writing in 1857, but was overruled by the decision of the House in 1861.
No wonder Sec. Simon only included a partial quote!
Good find! Thank you for hunting!
I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know until well-into-adulthood that the rest of the country didn’t have the DFL.
Or Leeann Chin.
Wait, we're the only ones with Leeann Chin?! TIL!
I only found out because I was using "DFL" freely on an internet politics forum (The Neutral Zone on the TrekBBS, which, thank God, has since been hard-reset, taking all my childish bad takes with it), and eventually somebody stopped me and asked what the heck I was on about. Came as a complete shock to me.
Happened to me when I was in college in St Louis. Talking politics with friends and folks were saying “GOP this” and “GOP that,” and when I started saying “DFL this” and “DFL that,” I got the blankest stares ever.
And yeah Leeann Chin is local too. A high school friend-of-a-friend was Leeann Chin’s grandson, and when I brought it up in a different conversation in college I got the exact same blank stares.
So this is why DFL and Leeann Chin occupy similar places in my brain.