A Minnesota House committee went into rare and highly polarizing territory Wednesday, discussing and then rejecting a proposal to start impeachment proceedings against DFL Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The evenly split House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee, made up of veteran chamber members, considered the preliminary step in a process that had next-to-no chance of coming to fruition. It fell on an 8-8 vote.
The resolution before the committee laid out a process to impeach the constitutional officers over their leadership during a time Minnesota programs experienced widespread fraud.
“We have a historic amount of fraud taking place in our state. Historic actions are warranted,” said Rep. Ben Davis, R-Merrifield. “Minnesota deserves accountability and transparency with its constitutional officers.”
In laying out the proposal, legislative staff pointed to cases in which the impeachment process was invoked in the late 1800s to deal with Minnesota judges. The Minnesota Constitution calls for an immediate suspension of duties for those who are impeached from office, restoring them only upon a Senate acquittal.
Republicans who align themselves with the Freedom Caucus in the House initiated the conversation in what turned into a tense hearing. They argued Walz and Ellison should face impeachment over their failure to head off widespread fraud in state government programs in recent years.
Ellison is a candidate for reelection in November; Walz is not.
Democrats opposed the move for which there is no modern precedent. They said it was a distraction with a little more than a month in the legislative session.
“Amid serious times with families facing serious economic challenges, this is a fundamentally unserious proposal by a fundamentally unserious party who isn't interested in governing,” Rep. Michael Howard, DFL-Richfield, calling the resolution motivated by grievance politics. “Let's actually get stuff done instead of just catering to a narrow band of folks and the narrow band of legislators that seem to have Walz derangement syndrome.”
Multiple Democrats turned the attention toward President Donald Trump, saying Republicans hold him to a lesser accountability standard than they want for Walz and Ellison.
“What I have a problem with is the sincerity of this,” said Rep. Erin Koegel, DFL-Spring Lake Park, listing some inflammatory rhetoric and ethically dubious actions by Trump.
“What is happening at the federal level is also wrong,” she said.
Trump was impeached twice during his first term in office, acquitted by the U.S. Senate in both cases. Democrats say they could pursue it again if they retake the U.S. House.
House Republican Leader Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said Minnesota lawmakers don’t have many options but should take a step to hold state officers accountable.
“As the House, the only step that we have to do direct accountability is the tool of impeachment. We do not have the power to arrest or prosecute for crimes, but Article Eight of the Minnesota Constitution gives the House the sole power of impeachment, and states a legal standard for impeachment for ‘corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors,’” Niska said. “This is an important legal process.”
The resolution would have tasked another House panel with conducting an impeachment investigation and reporting back by May 1.
The investigating committee would be the House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy Committee, which is the only House panel to have a majority of Republicans and permanent gavel in GOP control. Democrats voiced concerns about effectively giving Republicans, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Kristin Robbins, that authority in the final weeks of the legislative session. Robbins chairs the anti-fraud committee.
At an event in Rochester, Walz said lawmakers should focus more on bringing down costs for Minnesotans, rather than picking political fights.
“I would just encourage those legislators maybe get out of the basement of the Capitol, where they're putting on a little play,” Walz told MPR News. “They don't like me, but they were not elected to like me. They were elected to serve their constituents.”
MPR News Correspondent Catharine Richert contributed to this report from Rochester.
