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Most people likely think of political corruption in terms of bribe-taking. But there are more dangerous forms of corruption than bribery–obtaining power by violating election laws, for example, and maintaining power through lies and deceit, and buying votes by scattering public funds in disregard of legal standards. Minnesota, once regarded as a politically “clean” state, is now awash in these and other forms of corruption.

Minnesota is sometimes seen as a blue state, but in fact it is balanced on a knife’s edge, at least when it comes to legislative control. In nine days our 2025 legislative session will begin, amid scenes of turmoil. In the wake of the 2024 election, the Minnesota House was equally divided, 67-67, while since 2022 Democrats have controlled the Senate by a single vote, 34-33. But the battle for control of the state’s legislature is just heating up.

A Democratic House candidate, Curtis Johnson, cheated and got caught. He did not live in the district where he ran, in violation of state law. His Republican opponent filed an election contest, which was upheld by a judge who enjoined the DFL “winner” from taking a seat in the House. That means that when the House convenes, Republicans will have a 67-66 edge, which will allow them to elect the Speaker, Lisa Demuth, and take charge of the committees.

In the Senate, meanwhile, DFLer Nicole Mitchell goes on trial for first degree burglary next month. Assuming she is convicted of a felony–she was caught red-handed–she probably will have to resign, thus temporarily creating a 33-33 standoff in the Senate.

No one understands the mechanics and implications of all of this better than Bill Walsh, a long-time political operative who is now Communications Director at Center of the American Experiment. On New Year’s Eve, he joined podcast hosts Grace Keating and Kathryn Hinderaker to talk about the various controversies surrounding the opening of this year’s legislative session. If you want to learn more, this is an entertaining way to do it. It is a master class in state-level politics on Bill’s part:

In the podcast, Bill notes that Governor Tim Walz has precipitously scheduled a special election in the district where the DFL candidate cheated. Bill points out that Walz’s order violated Minnesota law, and speculates that our friends at the Upper Midwest Law Center, on whose board I serve, might be retained to bring a lawsuit.

That has happened. The case was filed on Friday, and a hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. You can read the plaintiffs’ petition for relief on behalf of the Republican Party and others here. The case strikes me as obviously meritorious. Walz’s order purported to provide for the filling of a vacancy in the Minnesota House. Only…there is no vacancy. The facts, quoted here from the petition, are actually rather humorous:

4. Jamie Becker-Finn is the current representative for the Minnesota House of Representatives from District 40B until noon on January 14, 2025. https://www.house.mn.gov/members/profile/15457 (accessed Jan. 3, 2025); Minn. Const. art. IV, §4; Minn. Stat. §3.011.

5. There is no vacancy for the seat under Minnesota law.

6. Curtis Johnson is neither an officeholder nor an incumbent. He received the most votes for representative of House District 40B in the general election held on November 5, 2024 to replace Representative Becker-Finn, but was subsequently held by the Ramsey County District Court to be ineligible to hold that seat as the “result[] from a successful election contest.” Minn. Stat. §204D.19, subd. 4; see also Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order, Wikstrom v. Johnson, No. 62-CV-24-7378 (Minn. Dist. Ct. Dec. 20, 2024) (attached as Exhibit C to Dickey Aff.).

7. Thus, any special election to fill the seat for which Mr. Johnson is ineligible must proceed from a writ issued by the Governor pursuant to the provisions of Minn. Stat. §204D.19, subd. 4, which expressly and specially applies where “a vacancy results from a successful election contest.”

Which would push back the timing of the special election that Democrats need to make up for the fact that their candidate was caught cheating. Tim Walz is a corrupt scofflaw, but this time I don’t think he is going to get away with it, despite the overwhelmingly Democratic composition of Minnesota’s Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Minnesotans are finally waking up to the fact that for some years, the state’s government has been run not just incompetently, but corruptly. The Walz administration has been beset by so many scandals that we have actually had to create a Scandal Tracker to keep track of them all. Feeding Our Future is the current record-holding fraud, but I am told that the more recent autism scandal–frauds are always committed in an allegedly good cause–may exceed FOF’s $250 million to $500 million taxpayer rip-off.

So on Friday, Walz held a press conference to announce a new anti-fraud initiative, which my colleague Bill Glahn discusses here. It comes a little late, since he has been in office for six years.

Walz couldn’t resist repeating the lie, exposed years ago on this site and elsewhere, that his administration paid many millions to known fraudsters because a Ramsey County judge ordered them to do so. This is an utter fabrication, as the judge himself demonstrated in a press release. But Walz has no other excuse to offer, so he continues to repeat the transparent lie.

Minnesota is one of a number of states where a hopelessly corrupt old guard is trying to stave off reform. In the weeks to come, we will be reporting on the ebb and flow of the battle for control of our state.