Task force to study legislative tweaks
"Features"10/26/2005
BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press
Can a task force convened by a conservative think tank and co-chaired by former Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican leaders help the Minnesota Legislature avoid gridlock?
That’s the hope for a new task force of the Center of the American Experiment, jointly led by former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe and former state Republican Party Chairman Chris Georgacas. The pairing of Georgacas and Moe brings together two adversaries from the 2002 gubernatorial election. Moe was the DFL candidate for governor that year, while Georgacas chaired Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s campaign.
The group created the task force as part of its series of policy blueprint studies about how to reform Minnesota government.
“The system itself fundamentally works pretty well,” said Annette Meeks, CEO of the Center. But lawmakers have gone into special session 10 times in the past 12 years, and this year the government shut down for eight days in the ultimate legislative stalemate. “The system seems to have bogged down.”
Meeks, a former aide to U.S. Reps. Newt Gingrich and Vin Weber, said her goal for the task force is not to take the politics and partisanship out of the Legislature. Instead, it is to find ways to help the Legislature “to do the people’s work and go home.”
Moe said he’s not expecting the group to come up with any earth-shattering changes.
“I doubt whether there will be radical recommendations. … Maybe we’ll pull the sides together a little more,” Moe said. “Basically the legislative process … has to start with trust. My observation is that people don’t trust one another.”
The task force itself has already pulled disparate sides together. Not only is it led by former political opponents, its membership includes three former Republican and three former Democratic lawmakers, a political independent business leader, Republican and Democratic lobbyists, a former reporter and a former editorial writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The task force will start meeting next month and will make its recommendations before next year’s legislative session.