Senate GOP leader intends to step down from leadership if he runs for governor

Senate Republicans could soon face a leadership contest because Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, has pledged to step down as leader if he decides to run for governor, according to two people with direct knowledge of caucus deliberations. 

Sources, who were granted anonymity to speak freely about internal caucus deliberations, say Gazelka’s preferred successor is state Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, but he currently may lack the votes to ascend to leadership. 

It’s early, however, and votes aren’t yet being counted. Other potential leaders — should Gazelka step aside — include state Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, Sen. Bill Weber, R-Luverne, and state Sen. Tom Bakk, I-Cook, who has been caucusing with Republicans since defecting from the DFL caucus late last year. 

Gazelka told his GOP colleagues he would make a decision by late August, timed to the State Fair. 

Miller’s status is unclear, however, as he may not run for reelection in 2022. If he’s not running, it’s unclear whether Senate Republicans would want to install him as majority leader, a role that usually entails significant fundraising, candidate recruitment and campaigning ahead of a major election that will see all 67 Senate districts on the ballot. 

There is precedent for a Bakk ascension: Former state Sen. Dean Johnson of Willmar served as Senate GOP minority leader before he left to join the DFL caucus in 2000. He later served as Senate DFL majority leader from 2004 through 2007.

The sources said it’s also starting to look less likely that Gazelka will run for governor, after all. 

He is still mulling a run, but Repubublican activists and donors are said to be lukewarm on his candidacy. While he has a solid conservative record, the Republican base does not favorably view political compromise with Democrats. Gazelka capitulated on a number of GOP priorities during the recent state budget negotiations, walking away with his top priority of tax cuts but giving up things like voter ID and the GOP effort to kill new tougher auto emission standards. 

Gazelka declined to comment. 

A request for comment from Miller was not immediately returned Thursday.

Michelle Benson of Ham Lake, currently serving her fourth term, is expected to announce a run for governor in mid-August, the sources said. 

Benson declined to comment, but said: “Stay tuned.”

Democrats in the upper chamber are also facing intra-caucus tumult. 

State Sen. Melissa Franzen, DFL-Edina, resigned Wednesday from her role as assistant minority leader in protest of the treatment of a former staffer who said she was sexually harassed by a man who had been campaign manager for Minority Leader Susan Kent.