Assassinated Minnesota Dem had just crossed party lines to cast decisive vote against illegal migrant handouts: I did what leaders do

The Dem Minnesota state lawmaker who was assassinated by a crazed gunman in a rubber mask crossed party lines just days earlier for a critical vote revoting health care coverage of illegal migrants.Melissa Hortman, the state House Democratic leader, was the only member of her party to side with Republicans and vote to repeal taxpayer-funded healthcare coverage for adult illegal immigrants as part of this year’s budget bill.She and her husband were gunned down on Saturday in Brooklyn Park just outside of Minneapolis, shortly after the same assassin is believed to have gravely wounded Democratic state Sen.

John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.Cops are on the hunt for the suspect, Vance Luther Boetler, 57, a political appointee of Gov.Tim Walz, who allegedly left behind a sick “manifesto” listing the names of 70 politicians, including Walz, according to authorities.Just days earlier, on June 10, Hortman cast the decisive vote on a state budget bill that stripped access to MinnesotaCare benefits for illegal migrants over the age of 18.“I did what leaders do, I stepped up and I got the job done for the people of Minnesota,” she told KTTC-TV, adding that she understood the anger of her fellow DFL members.“They’re right to be mad at me.

I think some of them are pretty, pretty angry.I think that their job was to make folks who voted for that bill feel like crap, and I think that they succeeded,” she said.She appeared visibly upset as she said she had voted for the healthcare provision solely to uphold the budget deal, which was later passed by the state Senate.

Walz is expected to sign the budget into law.“I know that people will be hurt by that vote, and we worked very hard to get a budget deal that didn’t include that provision,” she told the House on Tuesday following a four-hour debate, The state legislature in Saint Paul is extremely narrowly divided.

The state House is controlled by Republicans, who have a majority of just one seat (67-66) and...