Arrogance, Ignorance, Or Was Something Missing?

Was it arrogance, ignorance, or both, that caused Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) candidate Curtis Johnson to run for the District 40B seat in the Minnesota Legislature? How else do you describe his running for election in a district where he had not established residency?
Perhaps, it was because something was missing. We’ll get to that shortly.
Is the DFL Party so disorganized that it can’t monitor whether its candidates are residents of the districts in which they run? With so much at stake for the party, you would think it would pay attention to such important facts.
It was a secure seat for the DFL Party in a northern Twin Cities suburb. Run a decent candidate in the Roseville area, and the party was assured of a win. At least, that is what should have happened.
In most years, it might not have been a significant matter that one state legislative candidate was disqualified after winning at the polls. But this year, a single seat has proven crucial to which party controls the House.
It was thought that with Johnson’s win, the House would be tied with 67 Democrats and 67 Republicans. Power would be shared with co-speakers and co-chairs of every committee. Every committee would have equal members. Every piece of legislation that passed at every step of the way in its journey through the House would need compromise.
Then Johnson was booted from his seat, and chaos ensued.
A special election was called for by DFL Gov. Tim Walz, with it set for Jan. 28. Democrats walked away from the expected start of the 2025 legislative session last Tuesday, claiming that no speaker could be chosen or committee chairs appointed without 68 of the 134 members of the House present.
Minnesota DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon, who by law presides over the House to start the legislative biennium until a speaker is chosen, ruled that the state Constitution prohibited any action until 68 members were present.
But the 67 House Republicans showed up in the House chamber anyway and elected Rep. Lisa Demuth, of Cold Spring speaker. Democrats say the vote was illegal.
Friday, a ruling from the Minnesota Supreme Court changed the game for Democrats, who will now have to face the fact that Johnson’s failure to establish residency in District 40B has likely wrecked their chances of sharing power over the next two years.
A Republican legal challenge in late December to the fast-tracked special election was upheld by the Court. What we find particularly encouraging about this decision is that it was made by six of the court’s seven justices, all of whom were appointed by Democratic governors. One justice recused himself because he had been a general counsel for Walz in the past. It was evidence that the rule of law takes precedence over party.
“The writ of special election for House District 40B was issued prematurely and therefore must be quashed,” the justices stated in their unsigned opinion.
Minnesota’s highest court ruled that the governor can only call for a special election after “the legislative session begins, and a vacancy is clear. Johnson had never taken the seat but stepped away after he lost the residency case,” Minnesota Public Radio reported.
Now it could be later in February or even early March before an election decides the winner of the 40B seat. It is likely to be a Democrat, and the body will again be tied 67-67. But the DFL House members must show up now and let the Republican Party take control. They can’t delay getting to work on critical state legislation, including the budget.

His district lost its newspaper
We believe there is another reason for the mess the DFL Party and all Minnesotans find themselves in at the Legislature today – the loss of community newspapers, both in rural and urban areas.
Perhaps Johnson didn’t think anyone was watching. Republicans might have been, but their motivation is political power, not keeping the DFL from blunders.
In 2019, Lillie Suburban Newspapers abruptly shut down. Among its eight publications was the Roseville-Little Canada Review. If it had still been around last year, maybe one of its reporters would have investigated Johnson’s residency and called it out when there was still time to get another candidate on the ballot.
Last April, another eight community newspapers – the Hutchinson Leader, Litchfield Independent Review, Chaska Herald, Chanhassen Villager, Jordan Independent, the Shakopee Valley News, Prior Lake American and Savage Pacer – were shut down by Denver-based company MediaNews Group, owned by ruthless hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Some are back, but not all.
“Among the approximately 120 Minnesota newspapers that disappeared between 2000 and 2022, around 40% of them were weeklies serving the Twin Cities suburbs, while the other 60% were Greater Minnesota papers,” a 2023 study by the Center for Rural Policy and Development reported.
With the loss of newspapers and reporters, fewer and fewer of Minnesota’s 134 House districts and 67 Senate districts are seeing coverage of the candidates running for office. No one is reporting on their actions once they are in office.
Each community that loses its newspaper just doesn’t lose coverage of legislative races, it loses coverage of city, school district, county, and economic development authority actions. It loses its sense of community.
There are costs that come with the loss of reporting and the current chaos at the Minnesota Legislature is just one more sign of what is happening today and what will get much worse if newspapers aren’t provided the financial backing to do the job a representative democracy demands.