Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, failed to hold the quarterly law‑maker safety meetings that the state constitution requires, a lapse that only came to light after the June 14 shooting that killed House Speaker Melissa Hortman. Her oversight has sparked sharp rebuke from Capitol colleagues, with House GOP whip Jim Nash criticizing her for “shameful” neglect of a duty that was supposedly under her own roof.
Flanagan, who is now contesting the Senate seat left vacant by retiring Senator Tina Smith, has convened roughly half of the 24 sessions that the Minnesota Advisory Committee on Capitol Area Security (ACCAS) was legally obliged to hold over the past five years. “The Advisory Committee on Capitol Area Security is designed to ensure that legislators, visitors, and staff at the Capitol are kept as safe as possible, but we can’t fulfill that duty if the chair refuses to actually call meetings as required by law,” Nash told the Post.
He added, “It’s incredibly irresponsible, and frankly just confusing, that the elected official who chairs the committee and has her office within the Capitol complex, refuses to take the responsibility of this group seriously,” and continued that “There are a lot of conversations to be had and decisions to be made, especially this year, and the fact that she has kept this committee on the back burner for years is shameful.”
From 2019 to 2024, the panel met only 13 times—well short of the 24 sessions mandated by the law—while most of its proceedings before 2023 were not posted online. Only two meetings, one in 2023 and one in 2024, have publicly available minutes, and just a single report arrived before the 15 January deadline.
In 2025, five ACCAS gatherings have taken place, and when pressed about the missing safety briefings, Flanagan said, “We take this very seriously and that’s how we’re going to move forward,” adding that future meetings will occur more frequently.
The safety debate intensified after the tragic event that killed Hortman and her husband. Vance Boelter, the alleged gunman, was also charged with the attacks on Senator John Hoffman and his wife, which occurred hours before the shooting that claimed Hortman. Boelter, 57, had recently faced charges on a separate burglary case that linked him to a mentally ill man who wandered into the Senate chamber in a state‑of‑mind similar to that of a 2023 incident in which a disrobed individual claimed to be Governor Tim Walz.
Flanagan’s oversight extends beyond ACCAS. The Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness (MICH), another committee she chairs, failed to meet its annual minimum of four gatherings since 2019, holding only 15 of the required 24 sessions by the end of 2024. That lapse raises questions about whether missed meetings might have averted further security mishaps on the capitol grounds.
In the political arena, Flanagan’s re‑election bid in 2022 left her well ahead of Rep. Angie Craig in some early polls, though an internal Democratic survey suggested Craig could edge her in a general‑election matchup against a Republican contender.
Governor Walz’s spokesman announced that ACCAS has met five times this year, with four meetings held since August. He emphasized that the lieutenant governor has been coordinating with public‑safety agencies, that the Department of Public Safety has reduced the number of open Capitol entrances from 14 to four and bolstered security presence, and that an independent firm has been contracted to audit Capitol buildings. “ACCAS can make recommendations to the legislature but cannot make changes on its own,” the spokesman said. “The Lieutenant Governor has made clear she believes banning weapons at the Capitol is the best way to ensure safety – now the Legislature needs to act.”
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