Since 1935, just 17 top appointees of Minnesota governors have been rejected by the state Senate.
While most appointees serve without their confirmation ever coming up for a vote on the floor, the rare act of being rejected under the Constitution’s advice and consent section has happened twice already in the 2½ years of the Tim Walz administration and could happen again this week before the GOP-controlled Senate completes review of six appointees.
[image_caption]Former MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop[/image_caption]
Minnesota follows a system that is not uncommon among the states but is different from presidential appointments. Once an announcement of an appointment is delivered to the state Senate, an appointee can take the job. Many serve entire terms without having their appointment acted upon.
Two appointees rejected last summer
If confirmed, an appointee is safe and serves as long as the governor wants. But the unconfirmed work under the threat that at any time the Senate can bring up their name and, in effect, fire them with a majority vote. That was more than a threat last summer when two Walz appointees were not confirmed. They are Nancy Leppink as head of the department of Labor and Industries and Steve Kelley, commissioner of the Department of Commerce.
[image_caption]Former Commissioner Nancy Leppink[/image_caption]
Before Leppink, the most recent commissioners removed by the Senate were Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke in 2004 and Transportation Commissioner Carol Molnau in 2008, both appointed by GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty and both not confirmed by DFL Senate majorities. (Molnau was also lieutenant governor and retained that elected position.)
The potential for additional removals has hung over the Walz administration since, colored by the ongoing dispute between the governor and the Senate GOP majority over the monthly extensions of the peacetime state of emergency and the executive orders authorized by that declaration.
[image_credit]REUTERS/Nick Pfosi[/image_credit][image_caption]Gov. Tim Walz[/image_caption]
The largest target for GOP unhappiness might have been MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop until she resigned the office Tuesday. In his announcement of the departure, Walz said he had been told by the Senate that she wouldn’t be confirmed and the resignation headed that off.
But there are others that had drawn criticism from Republican senators, and hearings were held Tuesday. They are Sarah Strommen for commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Housing Finance Agency Commissioner Jennifer Ho. Strommen received warm words from Republicans and less so from Sen. Jen McEwen, DFL-Duluth, over issues such as the PolyMet copper-nickel mine proposal and Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline. Ho took questions about the slow rollout of pandemic rental assistance under the renthelpmn.org program but the Senate Housing Committee took no vote on her confirmation and made no recommendation.
[image_caption]Commissioner Jennifer Ho[/image_caption]
The extension of the special session called in mid-June in order to finish the state budget by the July 1 start of the new budget period has angered Walz and DFLers. All of the appointees in question have been in office since the early months of the Walz governorship.
Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, said Tuesday he didn’t want to disrupt an already contentious budget session with what is proving to be a tense overtime season over confirmations.
“We decided to wait on that, take a couple of days and take a handful of appointments,” he said. He said the six are a combination of those members thought “were doing a good job” and some that have issues. Even then, 21 top appointees remain unconfirmed and Gazelka said others could be brought up during a September special session meant to approve a plan to distribute $250 million to pandemic essential workers.
Little the governor could do
Could Walz have done anything to fight back? Likely not. Former President Donald Trump frequently appointed acting secretaries who were not subject to confirmation, but Minnesota law requires governors to fill vacancies within 45 legislative days of a vacancy, thus capping the time that acting commissioners can serve.
“… the governor must appoint a permanent commissioner, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, within 45 legislative days,” wrote Senate analyst Andrew Erickson in a June 2020 memo. “In the period before a permanent commissioner is appointed, the governor may appoint a temporary or acting commissioner who is not subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.”
But the acting commissioner named to replace Bishop could serve until March of 2022 — 45 legislative days after the beginning of the next regular session next January.
A lack of legal recourse left Walz to complain about process and motivations.
“I expect the Senate to fulfill their constitutional duty to confirm any qualified candidate, as they should have done two years ago when our commissioners were first appointed,” the DFL governor said in a statement Friday. “Because Senate Republicans put this work off for two years and are choosing to conduct their work in overtime, I am calling on them to forgo the thousands of taxpayer dollars they take each day in per diem, and I expect that they will conduct their work expediently, professionally, and free of any political theater.”
What the Constitution says
The language in the state constitution is brief and without guidelines. “With the advice and consent of the senate (the governor) may appoint notaries public and other officers provided by law.” There is no timeline for confirmation, something that allows a Senate of another party than the governor to hold confirmation over the heads of appointees. Rather than judge the fitness of qualifications of appointees when they are first named, the process allows the Senate to assess the performance of commissioners and others.
Minnesota statute gives more guidance and the state Supreme Court has ruled that once an appointment letter is sent to the Senate a governor cannot rescind it.
Gazelka said Tuesday the assessment is meant to measure how appointees have worked with the Legislature and interest groups.
“In the end we have to decide, like an employer, is someone doing their job or not doing their job,” he said. Gazelka is considering a run for governor and was asked if he would be comfortable appointing commissioners who could be removed at any time during a term.
“It’s important for a governor to pick commissioners who can work on both sides of the aisle,” he said.
The DFL is in the minority in the Senate and has little means of stopping any motions to not confirm. Tuesday a motion to adjourn the special session before any votes could be taken lost on a party-line vote.
[image_caption]Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent[/image_caption]
“I think it is interesting that we’re going to take up a couple of unobjectionable men today and then we’re going to take up a few women tomorrow that they seem to have an issue with,” Kent said.
Now that the Republicans have figured out that they can weaponize the “advice and consent” process, it needs to be de-weaponized. There needs to be a time limit on confirming these appointments, and if the deadline is not met, then the appointments become confirmed by default.
No one who is any good is going to want to accept these appointments if this is the sort of thing that is going to start happening on a regular basis.
To the GOP, your last point is likely a feature, and not a bug, of these shenanigans.
That actually occurred to me as I was writing it.
“In the end we have to decide, like an employer, is someone doing their job or not doing their job.” By all accounts, Bishop was doing her job or maybe Gazelka doesn’t quite understand what the “Pollution Control” part of the title means.
Gazelka goes in front of the news cameras time and time again and touts bipartisanship, bemoans Walz’s dictatorial powers, pretends he is working in good faith. Then he pulls this stunt revealing his true cynical self as he does the bidding of mining interests, corporate farming, and the oil industry. What a pious phony he is.
This sort of thing, this playing politics and whining loudly when you don’t get your way, is the sort of thing Republicans have to do because they don’t actually have any good ideas. They obstruct because they lack the maturity to have an actual adult conversation, an exchange of ideas among equals. The fact that the “leader” of the Senate has gubernatorial aspirations is equally laughable and pathetic. No matter what your political persuasion you can see that Walz at least recognizes that he represents everyone in the state, and does not position himself to speak only for those of a certain political bent. How can someone who can’t accept the legal results of the last election hope to represent those of us who actually think?
More importantly: why would voters go along with this incessant stalemate nonsense???? No one wins in that scenario but the non-participating REPS. The words negotiate and compromise have been removed by the them. They just dig in, become entrenched and stop & block any actions–PROGRESS!–by the DEMs. This is the antithesis of democracy but clearly it’s all they can come up with. There are 2 ways to deal with bullies: 1) ignore them and walk away or 2) get in their faces enforce and fight back. The 2nd is most effective if the majority participate. So we can have gridlock ad nauseum…for years…or we can collectively STOP IT NOW.
This is just Senate Republican’s version of the House Republican tantrums we’ve seen since the court took away their favorite toy… i.e. shutting down or threatening to shut down the Government. Hey, it’s in the State Constitution so they get to do it… but then so do Democrats if they take the Senate some day with a Republican Gov. in the house.
What I want to know is… what happens if Walz just re-appoints someone? In the meantime he should just keep appointing people who would more less do the same things, and the Democrats should smash Republicans over the head with this crap in the election.
I would guess this is payback for Walz assuming dictator status long after the Covid ‘emergency” ended. He refused to allow any Republicans a seat in the inner circle. That was not right. We have 3 branches of government for a reason. Disfunction all the way around
Gazelka is parroting trump’s little ‘passing executive orders’ game. He, Daudt, and other Republican senators have burnt their bridges with voters who think and value more than religion and tax cuts when they vote.
My general feeling is that the confirmation process must happen within a reasonable period of time. The senate must not be allowed to sit on it’s rights to the detriment of the public. By not acting in a timely fashion on the governor’s appointments, the senate is clearly harming the public interest.