Fractious legislative session 'a mixed bag'

The 2015 Legislature wrapped up early last week, once again characterized by moderate Republican lawmakers breaking with their caucus to support major Democrat-supported legislation.

That dynamic was alive and well in the typically conservative Flathead Valley, with representation running the gamut from Democratic newcomers to veteran and freshman Republicans on both sides of the intraparty divide.

As the new House majority leader, Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, was in part responsible for corralling the fractious Republican caucus that held the deciding votes for the most contentious bills of the session. Regier was on the losing side of that fight as often as not. 

On bills covering Medicaid expansion, the tribal water compact and campaign finance disclosure, for instance, a small number of Republicans joined Democrats to create slim House majorities that ultimately sent those bills to Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock’s desk for his signature.

“In general, I’m a little disappointed,” Regier said. “The governor got most of what he wanted... but we did hold the line on some things. I’d say it was a mixed bag.”

Regier was not alone among conservative Republicans who saw the budget as the silver lining to a difficult session. Returning to the Senate after being termed out in 2005, Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, said that as vice chairman of the House Finance Committee, he focused most of his energy on budget negotiations, particularly as the deadline to find a compromise spending plan between the proposals of Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and the House Republicans drew nearer.

“I was very satisfied, because we went into the session looking for no more than 3 percent growth over the next years, based on population growth and inflation, and we ended up successfully doing that,” said Keenan, adding, “I think for the most part, the Republican Party was in the majority, but conservatives were in the minority.”

Having previously spent four terms in the Senate — including one as majority leader — Keenan said the Legislature has changed significantly over the past decade since he last served.

“The executive branch of government does not respect the perspective of the legislators, and that’s a huge change that was very disappointing.”

Another veteran lawmaker from the valley, Sen. Mark Blasdel, R-Kalispell, agreed that the legislative branch failed to wield the same amount of power as it has in years past, making significant concessions to the governor’s office. Blasdel is in his first Senate term after four sessions in the House, where he served as the speaker in 2012 and helped craft a budget that won unanimous support from that chamber in 2013.

“I think we’ve given up a lot of our control on certain issues... especially on the administrative rule process,” he said. “I think the rapid turnover has taken away some of the institutional knowledge, as far as the budget. It really changes the relationship-building portion of it.”

Regarding the change in the House’s tone from last session, Blasdel noted that more than a third of the members were new to the Legislature, and a more cordial working relationship between the two parties in 2013 had largely evaporated by 2015.

“Also, an election year for the governor makes things more political,” he added. “It makes both parties try to showcase their differences more.”

Bullock is likely to run for re-election in 2016 before the next Legislature meets.

Unlike Keenan and Blasdel, who held to the party line on most of the session’s major issues, Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, frequently strayed across the aisle, voting for the dark-money campaign-finance bill, Medicaid expansion and the water compact. The latter earned him criticism from many local conservatives, along with a pre-session censure from the Flathead County Republican Central Committee over his early support for the compact.

“Whether we’re ‘real’ Republicans or ‘moderate’ Republicans, we’re solution-makers. The party has moved to the right, and the John Birchers and Libertarians have become a very loud and boisterous part of the Republican Party,” Tutvedt said. “I don’t think Montanans want what’s going on in D.C.”

A major sticking point in the session boiled down to a rules agreement hammered out by the parties’ House leadership in early January. Anticipating that several major bills would be bottled up in committees, the parties agreed to allow each caucus six “silver bullets” that could pull a bill out of committee on a simple majority vote, rather than the three-fifths majority normally needed in the House.

It became one of the decisive issues of the session, with Medicaid, campaign finance and the water compact each seeing the light of day only after silver bullets were invoked. However, by the time Medicaid expansion came up, the agreement broke down, with Republican-controlled committees giving adverse recommendations to bills, forwarding them to the floor but still requiring a three-fifths vote to be considered. The Democrats and some Republicans cried foul, saying the conservatives were reneging on the spirit of the agreement with a technical maneuver.

Regier disagreed with that interpretation, maintaining that the adverse committee report had been on the books for years, and was fair game regardless of the silver bullet agreement.

“In my opinion, the bill wasn’t in committee, so it wasn’t there to use a silver bullet on,” he said.

However, Freshman Rep. Frank Garner, R-Kalispell, sided with the Democrats on several of those silver-bullet maneuvers. He voted against the compact, but broke with his party on the health-care and dark money bills, the latter of which he carried in the House. He said the adverse committee reports failed to live up to the expectations agreed on by both parties at the session’s start.

“I voted for that [process], along with a majority of the people in my party,” Garner said. “And what I voted for was, in my opinion, that we were voting to allow any legislation that had been identified by either party as a silver bullet to be heard on the House floor by a majority vote. That simple.”

Having wrapped up his first legislative session, Garner expressed admiration for all his colleagues, given the amount of work required to process more than 1,000 bills in less than 90 days.

“I think it’s one of those things in life that everyone should do in their lifetime. There’s a lot of work and a lot that goes into the legislative process,” he said.

But he conceded that he weathered criticism by some in his party over his support of the dark-money bill.

“I got some pushback, and I got some people who supported me,” he said. “Some people understood my reasoning, why I thought it was important. That’s why they send a hundred of us to vote, and not just two or three.”

Having left town with a $150 million public-works bill falling short by one vote in the House, some legislators speculated on whether Gov. Bullock would call a special session to take another crack at it, particularly given the acute infrastructure needs on the eastern side of the state.

Whitefish Rep. Ed Lieser, serving his second term, who is one of only two Democrats in the Northwest Montana delegation, indicated that such a move wouldn’t be surprising.

“Quite frankly, I hope the governor comes back with a second session,” Lieser said, calling the bill’s demise “quite possibly the biggest disappointment of the session.”

That said, he felt that his party had been successful, given the Democrats’ minorities in both chambers.

“I’m surprised, really, at how the things that we really emphasized came through. There is no doubt that we had the help of some moderate Republicans to help us meet those objectives.”

Rep. Randy Brodehl, a Kalispell Republican in his third term, said stopping the infrastructure bill was one of his party’s only serious achievements, after Bullock vetoed a number of Republican tax cuts that easily passed both houses.

“He’s vetoed basically everything that’s come across his desk that would have given some relief to the taxpayer,” he said. “I’m disappointed but not surprised.”

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.