Library News - MN History

It took ten days for the Senate to organize in 1971. The days were filled with parliamentary maneuvering, the chief justice refusing to administer the oath, legislators storming out of the chamber, two secretaries of the Senate, two versions of the Journal, and a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling. What caused this turmoil in the Senate at the start of the 1971 session?

The election

In 1971, there were no party designations, but legislators chose to caucus with either the conservatives or the liberals. Conservatives had controlled the Senate chamber since at least 1913, the year legislators began being elected on a nonpartisan basis.

The results of the 1970 general election indicated that there would be 33 conservatives, 33 liberals, and one independent in the Senate. Prior to the election, the one independent, Richard Palmer, had said he would caucus with the majority, but the election results left the Senate without a clear majority party. Despite attempts by both caucuses to woo Palmer to their side, he eventually announced he would side with the conservative caucus when the legislature convened.

Then, more complications arose when Palmer’s opponent in the general election, Francis LaBrosse, filed an unfair campaign practices charge against him. This stirred up discussion before session convened over whether or not Palmer would be seated and, if seated, whether he could participate in the organization of the Senate.

On December 31, 1970, the Attorney General issued an opinion that explained that the oath of office may be administered to anyone who has an election certificate and that the Senate would need to consider the question of the eligibility of its members. The opinion also indicated that all senators could vote on organizational matters.

The first day of session

On January 5, 1971, the 67^th Legislature convened. Lieutenant Governor Rudy Perpich, a former senator and DFL party member, called the session to order as President of the Senate, which was the custom at the time. Despite being the presiding officer of the body, he was not a member of the body and, therefore, it was presumed that he could not vote as a member.

Much parliamentary maneuvering ensued to attempt to keep Palmer from being seated. Perpich surprised the chamber by presenting only 66 names to be sworn in that session, blocking Palmer from being seated. Chief Justice Oscar Knutson insisted that all 67 senators-elect who hold an election certificate be sworn in. When Perpich refused, Justice Knutson left the chamber without swearing in any senators at all.

The Senate then called on Mr. Patrick O’Neil, a notary public, to administer the oath, with the hopes that he would swear in all members except Palmer. He refused, but then rushed forward to administer the oath individually to Palmer. (Some media reports at the time credit Palmer as being the first senator sworn in that session.) Rep. Jack Fena, a DFL House member who was standing in the back of the chamber, was then called forward to administer the oath to all except Palmer, but Palmer stood anyway and took the oath a second time with the rest of the chamber.

After this tumultuous swearing in process, Perpich further surprised the body by continuing to deny Palmer’s presence or recognize his vote when members were deciding who would serve as Secretary of the Senate. The conservatives’ nominee was George Goodwin, whose election included Palmer’s vote. Instead of the vote going in the conservatives’ favor, in an unprecedented move Perpich ruled that he could vote to break what he deemed a 33-33 tie in order to vote in the liberals’ choice for Secretary of the Senate, Pat Flahaven. Goodwin and Flahaven were each given the oath of office. However, as Flahaven was given the oath, the conservatives left the chamber with promises to file a lawsuit. It was reported that Goodwin then received the oath of office in the corridor outside the Senate chamber.

The Senate is organized

For the next few days, there were two versions of the Journal of the Senate, with the liberal’s Journal ignoring the presence of Palmer. The unofficial transcripts, the Journal, and the alternative journal text show how the question of Palmer’s seating and the question of how many votes were counted for each motion were debated at each daily session.

On January 13^th, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the Senate had the responsibility to determine Palmer’s eligibility, and that the Lieutenant Governor does not have the authority to break a tie and could not exclude Palmer.

The January 14^th session opened with continued quibbling about whether there were 66 or 67 senators in the body as Senators discussed points raised by the court ruling. Eventually, the body successfully voted to amend the Journal of the Senate of the preceding days to acknowledge that Palmer had been seated. The Senate commenced further organization and was ready to proceed with legislative business.

For further reading:

Sources listed in chronological order. If you would like to request any of these sources, please email the library at library@lrl.mn.gov.

• Op.Atty.Gen., 280E, Dec. 31, 1970. - This Attorney General opinion concerns the seating of a Senate member.
• "Editorials: Seating of Legislators.” The Minneapolis Star, January 1, 1971, p. 8.
• Oath of Office Controversy, Minnesota Journal of the Senate, January 5, 1971, p. 5-11.
• “Legislature in Lengthy Debate Over Palmer.” The Duluth Herald, January 5, 1971, p. 1.
• “Senator-elect Palmer Vows to Take His Seat.” The Austin Daily Herald, January 5, 1971, p. 1.
• “Palmer Hassle Rocks Senate.” The Duluth News Tribune, January 6, 1971, p. 1 & 3.
• “DFL takes Senate Control: Conservatives Vow Court Fight.” Star Tribune, January 6, 1971, p. 1.
• “Battle of Journals Shapes Up.” St. Cloud Times, January 6, 1971.
• Senate Journal, January 5-8, 12-14, 1971
  • January 5, 1971
  • January 6, 1971
  • January 7, 1971
  • January 8, 1971
  • January 12, 1971
  • January 13, 1971
  • January 14, 1971
• Alternative Senate Journal, as written by the liberal caucus's Secretary of the Senate, Pat Flahaven, January 5-8, 12-14, 1971.
• Unofficial Transcripts from the Senate Floor Session, January 5-8, 12-14, 1971.
• State Ex Rel. Palmer v. Perpich, 1971, 289 Minn. 149, 182 n.W.2d 182. - Decision dated January 13, 1971.
• “Coleman Says Court Didn’t Resolve Dispute.” Saint Paul Dispatch, January 14, 1971.
• Pahl, T. L. “Minnesota.” Midwest Review of Public Administration, Vol. 5, no. 1, February 1971.
• Dornfeld, Steven. "Legislature's Opening Day 20 Years Ago Hard to Top for Political Chaos." St. Paul Pioneer Press, January 6, 1991.
• “Two Secretaries of the Senate – in 1971,” Memo by the Legislative Reference Library, January 2009.

State constitutions are amended much more often than the U.S. Constitution, and Minnesota’s is no exception. Since 1858, Minnesotans have considered 217 constitutional amendments, with 121 approved by voters. The most recent amendment "to extend the dedication of lottery proceeds to the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund” passed with overwhelming support in November 2024. The Library’s State Constitutional Amendments Considered web page provides more detail on all Minnesota's constitutional amendments and provides links to related publications, such as this collection from the House Research Department: Constitutional Amendments.

The State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School debuted an incredibly useful resource in 2023: 50constitutions.org. Their goal is to aid the work of academics, judges, legal practitioners, policymakers, and journalists by providing easy access to the text of all 50 state constitutions in readable form and allowing users to search within and across states.

Last week, the Initiative launched new features for the Minnesota Constitution. Users can now view the Minnesota Constitution as it stood on any date in its history, compare different versions of amended provisions, and read about significant amendments and historical moments. This feature is also available for nine other states, and additional features will be added for more states on a rolling basis.

Selected Resources from the Library's Collection

Minnesota Constitutional History:

• A History of the Constitution of Minnesota: With the First Verified Text (1921)
• Constitutional Commission of Minnesota (1947-1948)
  • Report of the Constitutional Commission of Minnesota (1948)
• Constitutional Study Commission (1971-1973)
  • Minutes: Minnesota Constitutional Study Commission (1971-1972)
  • Final Report and Committee Reports: Minnesota Constitutional Study Commission (1973)
• The Minnesota State Constitution: A Reference Guide (2002) 

Constitutional Law:

• State Constitutional Law in a Nutshell (2003)
• Hidden Laws: How State Constitutions Stabilize American Politics (2021)
• Who Decides: States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation (2022)
• The Law of American State Constitutions (2023)

Please contact us with questions or for research assistance: library@lrl.mn.gov or 651-296-8338.

People often ask the library about salaries of Minnesota legislators. Currently, legislator salaries are set at $48,250, but that will soon change. The latest issue of the Report of the Legislative Salary Council, new this month in the Library, sets legislators’ salaries at $52,750 beginning July 1, 2023. 

Prior to 2016, the Minnesota Constitution provided that legislators’ compensation was prescribed by law. A constitutional amendment regarding how legislators’ salaries are set was adopted by the voters in the 2016 election, which also happens to be our most recent constitutional amendment. The Legislative Salary Council’s first prescribed salary for legislators went into effect July 1, 2017. More details about legislator compensation are noted in the FAQ and our chart of Compensation of Minnesota Legislators, 1858 - present. 

Another new report this month is the Recommendations of the Minnesota State Compensation Council. This report, as indicated by the title, is not prescriptive but instead contains recommendations for compensation levels for the governor, other constitutional officers, judges, and several other officials. The Legislature can establish a new salary for the governor through an appropriation, or by passing a law that provides for a specific salary, or by providing for a percentage change in the salary. Under current law, if the Legislature does nothing, the salary does not change.

To see a chart of how these recommendations have related to the governor’s salary over time, see the library’s new Minnesota Governor’s Salary, 1983-Present page. Since their beginning in 1983, the Compensation Council has made recommendations nearly every odd-numbered year, but they did not meet in 2003, 2011, or in 2015. 

Contact us with questions, for research assistance, or to borrow these books and reports or any of the materials on this month's list: library@lrl.mn.gov or 651-296-8338.

In the new book, Nature's Crossroads: The Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota, editors George Vrtis and Christopher Wells have compiled an extensive environmental history of the state of Minnesota, with a particular focus on the relationship between the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota.

Divided into three sections, the first part “The Dynamics of Environmental Change: Cities, Commodities, Hinterlands,” explores the early relationship of the Twin Cities to the “hinterlands” – the authors’ moniker for greater Minnesota. In the second part, “The Twin Cities and the Built Environment,” the authors focus on the Twin Cities’ “urban confines.”

And the last part, “Environmental Politics, Thought, and Justice,” looks at how the environmental movement has influenced various regions and at times created tension between different geographic areas of Minnesota.

For more environmental history, be sure and check out the March-April 2023 Minnesota Conservation Volunteer article, “Paddling Into the Past: Three canoeists retrace the path of Arthur Carhart, a key character in the Boundary Waters origin story.” Side-by-side photos from the 1921 and 2022 trips illustrate the beauty of this Minnesota treasure.

The Legislative Reference Library is pleased to have Star Tribune photographer Glen Stubbe's engaging photographs of the Senate and the Capitol on display in the Library's Senate location.  Come see them soon--or stop by during a reception for Glen's exhibit on Thursday, January 19 from 9:30-11.  Cookies will be served!

Glen's Star Tribune colleague, Briana Bierschbach, wrote words of introduction to Glen's exhibit: 

At the Minnesota Capitol, the state Senate is the stately upper chamber, where senators and reporters must follow a dress code and decorum tends to prevail over fiery passions. But it can also be a place of warmth, where political rivals share a prayer, freshly baked bars and pat on the back after a grueling debate.

As a staff photographer for the Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe is often in the room where it happens, capturing both the debates that shape state policy and the little moments that show the humanity of the institution. He taps into a deep understanding of his source material and relationships developed over many years to capture moments others don't.

These images pull back the curtain on government in a way no words could ever convey.

-Briana Bierschbach, Politics and Government Reporter at the Star Tribune

Our Legislators Past & Present database is a rich source of biographical information and includes all 5,353 individuals who have served in the Minnesota Legislature -- a number that will soon grow as we look ahead to the start of the 93rd Legislature.

In addition to biographical details and specifics about a member’s legislative service, the database includes photographs of members when available. Many of the photographs in our database were originally printed in the Minnesota Legislative Manuals. While all Minnesota Legislative Manuals are available digitally, the scan resolution was not high enough for us to include additional images from those publications in our database without some extra work. We've partnered with the Minnesota Digital Library in recent years to include more than 3,000 photographs scanned from those publications specifically for inclusion in our database.

Until recently, many legislators were still not pictured in our database. This summer and fall, Library staff worked on filling some of those gaps and have now incorporated more than 2,500 photographs from 13 additional Legislative Manuals. 

Among those newly pictured are Sen. Laura Naplin (1927-1934), the first woman to serve in the Senate; Rep. Rosanna Payne (1927-1932), Rep. Harriet Weeks (1929-1932), and Rep. Bertha Hansen (1939-1940), some of the earliest women to serve in the House; Rep. Coya Knutson (1951-1954), who, after serving in the House, went on to be the first woman to represent Minnesota in Congress; and Rep. Charles Munn (1927-1934), who served one term as House Speaker and was the only speaker since 1905 not pictured in our database.

In addition to Rep. Coya Knutson, we've now added photographs of several other state legislators who also served in Congress: Rep. Victor Christgau (1927-1928), Rep. Dewey Johnson (1929-1934), Rep. James Bede (1931-1932), Sen. Henry Teigan (1933-1934), Rep. Richard Gale (1939-1940), Rep. Rick Nolan (1969-1972), and Rep. Betty McCollum (1993-2000).

The Library plays a vital role in preserving the history of the Minnesota Legislature as an institution. Legislators Past & Present is one of our richest and most unique resources, and expanding the photographs in this database -- which now total more than 8,500 -- enables researchers to better visualize Minnesota’s past.

January 5, 2021, the first day of the 2021-2022 biennium, marks Representative Mary Murphy's 16,073rd day in office, making her the second longest serving legislator in Minnesota history. Rep. Murphy's time in office now exceeds that of Phyllis Kahn, Carl Iverson, and Anton Rockne, each of whom served 16,072 days. Rep. Lyndon Carlson, who announced his retirement last year, remains the longest serving legislator. 

This milestone also makes Rep. Murphy the longest serving female legislator in state history.  When she took the oath of office in 1977, she was one of 13 women in the Legislature, which was a record at that time.

This year we mark more milestones: a record 72 women will serve in the Minnesota Legislature in the 2021-2022 biennium, and Senator Julia Coleman will be the youngest woman to ever serve in the Minnesota Senate.

Special sessions are often called after an agreement on budget or policy bills, left unfinished during the regular session, has been reached. In those cases special sessions typically only last a few days. This year's special session is being called under unique circumstances as Governor Walz extends the peacetime state of emergency and the Legislature is coming back without a formal agreement on session length or issues to be discussed. With attention not only on the state's ongoing work to address the COVID-19 pandemic, but also on policing, the state budget, and an unfinished bonding bill, some are wondering if this summer's special session will be a long one.

If this year's session does turn out to take several days or weeks, then it won't be the only long one in Minnesota's history. The record for the longest special session in state history was set in 1971. It spanned 159 calendar days, though included a 74-day recess in the summer and early fall. Students of Minnesota history will quickly remember that the legislation that came out of the 1971 Special Session was dubbed the "Minnesota Miracle," when the state enacted changes to property tax laws and school financing.

You can read more about the mechanics of special sessions in Special Sessions of the Minnesota Legislature and Making Laws, from the House Research Department. 

Photo: Senators discuss a bill on the floor during the 1991-1992 session. This photo is one of 200 Senate photos from the 1970s to the 1990s included in the Minnesota Digital Library.

Outbreaks of influenza (flu), poliomyelitis (polio), diphtheria, and typhoid fever have all impacted Minnesota, especially in the earlier days of statehood. Amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic, many have wondered about the state’s response to the influenza outbreak of 1918-1919.  

During that outbreak, the first case of flu was discovered in Minnesota in September 1918 and cases peaked during the fall of 1918. In The People’s Heath: A History of Public Health in Minnesota to 1948, author Philip D. Jordan chronicles how flu impacted the state.   

He describes measures taken then that echo our current circumstances in many ways. In 1918, large public gatherings in churches and theaters were prohibited for a time, and health officials strongly recommended schools close, though not all schools did. Dr. Henry Bracken, the head of the State Board of Health, ordered that flu patients could not ride trains without wearing a mask. According to Jordan, public places in Minneapolis, like saloons and soda fountains, remained closed during Armistice Day celebrations in November. 

The Legislature did not meet in 1918 because they only met in odd-numbered years in those days. In 1919, the Legislature met in regular session from January 7 to April 24. Although the Legislature passed a few bills related to public health during the 1919 session (see Laws of Minnesota 1919, chap. 38 and chap. 479), we haven’t been able to determine if those laws were passed in direct response to the flu outbreak. Likewise, there is little reported in the paper about any direct actions taken by the Legislature in 1919 to address the outbreak. In those days, it seems to have been more common for local health departments, sometimes in conjunction with the State Board of Health, to play a leading role in responding to public health issues.

These sources offer a deeper dive into how the influenza outbreak of 1918-1919 impacted Minnesota: 

• Brown, Curt. Minnesota 1918: When Flu, Fire, and War Ravaged the State. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2018.

• “Deja vu? Public Gathering Places were Ordered Closed in 1918 During Deadly Spanish Flu Crisis.” The Bemidji Pioneer, March 20, 2020.

• Dowd, Susan. “The Spanish Influenza in St. Paul in 1918, The Year the City Found the ‘Wolf’ at Its Door.” Ramsey County History, 40(1), 19-23, Spring 2005.

• Laine, Mary. “Influenza Epidemic in Minnesota, 1918.” MNopedia, updated April 30, 2020. 

• Ott, Miles, Shelley Shaw, Richard Danila, & Ruth Lynfield. “Lessons Learned from the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.” Public Health Reports, 122(6): 803-810, November-December 2007.

• Russ, A. B. “Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 Claimed Lives of Area Residents: State’s Spanish Flu Genesis was Wells.” The Mankato Free Press, January 13, 2018.

• “Throwback Thursday: The Spanish Flu Pandemic Hits Winona in October 1918.” The Winona Daily News, April 23, 2020.

The Minnesota Legislature has passed a presidential preference primary law four times; three were repealed. Four presidential preference primaries have been held: 1916, 1952, 1956, 1992, and soon a fifth will be held: 2020.

1913

Governor Eberhart promoted the presidential primary in his inaugural speech in 1913, and the Legislature passed a law that year, Chapter 449.

1916

The primary was held on March 14 (election results). Winners: Democrat, Woodrow Wilson; Prohibition, William Sulzer; Republican, Albert B. Cummins

Two days before the election, the Duluth News Tribune wrote about the upcoming contest, including "The crazy quilt presidential primary has befuddled everybody from the rummy to the justices of the Supreme Court."

In 1947, former Morning Star Tribune reporter Charles Cheney recalled the primary in "The Story of Minnesota Politics: Highlights of Half a Century of Political Reporting." "Minnesota tried the presidential primary once, in 1916, and that was enough. It was a lot of grief and expense.... The 1917 Legislature repealed the presidential primary freak, and few tears were shed."

1917

The law was repealed, Chapter 133.

1949

A presidential primary was established by Chapter 433, approved April 14.

1952

The primary was held on March 18 (election results). Winners: DFL, Hubert Humphrey; Republican, Harold Stassen

G. Theodore Mitau wrote about the primary in his 1970 version of the textbook Politics in Minnesota. "Stassen had led in the Minnesota Republican presidential primary, and most of the state's convention delegates were officially pledged to him. But a write-in campaign for Dwight D. Eisenhower, launched just a few days before the state primary, had resulted in what came to be called the "Minnesota miracle." With almost none of the advance publicity Stassen had enjoyed, and without the approval of the national Eisenhower organization, the campaign was phenomenally successful; 108,692 voters took the trouble to write in Eisenhower's name on the ballot, while Stassen, whose name was printed thereon, received only 20,000 more votes, 129,076."

1956

The primary was held on March 20 (election results). Winners: Democrat, Estes Kefauver; Republican, Dwight Eisenhower

Minnesota Politics and Government, a 1999 textbook by Daniel Elazar, Virgina Gray and Wyman Spano, explained: "In the 1956 presidential primary the leaders of the DFL tried to deliver the state for Adlai Stevenson by virtually dictating to the rank-and-file DFLers that they vote for him in the name of party unity. The spontaneous reaction of the voters was to give Estes Kefauver the victory, a message pointed toward Hubert Humphrey."  See also: "Primary History '56 Free-for-All Contest Had it All," by Jim Parsons, Star Tribune, Jan. 19, 1992.

Entire chapters were devoted to this primary race in Coya Come Home: A Congresswoman's Journey by Gretchen Urnes Beito (Los  Angeles: Pomegranate Press, 1990) and Hubert Humphrey: A Biography by Carl Solberg (St. Paul: Borealis Books, 2003).

1959

The presidential primary law was repealed, Chapter 67. 

Iric Nathanson wrote about the 1952 and 1956 primaries in a 2008 MinnPost article, "Political Mischief: Minnesota's 1950s Experiment with Presidential Primaries." About the repeal, he wrote, "The mainly Republican conservatives controlled the state Senate, and they moved first to vote repeal with only minimal debate. But repeal was more controversial in the House, where the liberal caucus, composed of DFLers, was in control. There, a repeal vote was delayed when primary supporters, many of whom had backed Kefauver in 1956, pushed unsuccessful to conduct one more direct primary in 1960 before scuttling the 1949 law entirely. But now DFL leaders were concerned that a 1960 primary, which permitted cross-over voting, could embarrass Hubert Humphrey and his bid for the 1960 presidential nomination." 

1989

A presidential primary bill, authored by Sen. Ron Dicklich, passed the Senate 48-16, and then the House 117-10, Chapter 291.

1990

Changes were made to the law. The date was pushed back from the last week in February to April 7, and voters were required to declare themselves for a particular party in order to get a ballot. Chapter 603. (Background: "Minnesota Primary Law Aims at Increasing Clout," by Gerald Kopplin, Hibbing Tribune, May 9, 1990)

1991-1992

The House and Senate voted to repeal the presidential primary, but Governor Arne Carlson vetoed the bill. His veto message described his support for a presidential primary. The Senate voted to override the veto, 56-9, but the House failed to override the veto, 77-49. See the veto page for detailed information. The primary remained in place. For background information, read: "The $4 Million Beauty Contest: Primaries and Caucuses 1992: Power to the People, Sort of," Roger Swardson, City Pages, February 26, 1992.

1992

The primary was held on April 7, 1992. Winners: DFL, Bill Clinton; IR, George H. W. Bush (election results). For more details, see: "Primal Yawn: Nation, and Most State Voters, Ignored Controversial Primary," by Dane Smith, Star Tribune, April 9, 1992.

1995

The presidential primary was put on hold until after 1999. More about the hold is described in: "Hopes Dashed for Presidential Primary, Election Overhaul," Jack B. Coffman, Pioneer Press, May 19, 1995).

1999

The presidential primary law was repealed in Chapter 250, Article 1, Section 115.

2016

Minnesota will move from a presidential caucus to a presidential primary for the 2020 election, Chapter 162.

2020

The presidential primary will be held March 3, 2020 on "Super Tuesday." This year, Minnesota will be one of 14 states with a primary on that day.

The Library has additional sources of information on the four Minnesota presidential primaries, including many news clippings on the 1992 primary and discussion of the issue during that decade. Another good source is for this timeline is: Dr. Eric Ostermeier's article for his Smart Politics blog, "A Brief History of Presidential Primaries."