The Minnesota House’s top Democrat helped shepherd a package of liberal initiatives to passage when her party had a narrow majority two years ago. After Democrats lost their majority, she helped broker a deal to keep state government funded and provided a crucial vote to pass it, though her party hated it. State Rep. Melissa Hortman, 55, the House's Democratic leader and former speaker, was shot to death early Saturday in her Minneapolis-area home along with her husband by someone posing as a law enforcement officer.