First-year legislators learn the ropes

HELENA — In Montana politics, you’ll often hear the every-other-year state legislative session referred to as “the fire hose.” More than 1,000 bills to review over a fast-paced, 90-day policymaking sprint.

It can be daunting even for veteran legislators, but among the 150 state senators and representatives, 34 are assuming their roles in the Legislature for the first time.

Most members of Northwest Montana’s delegation have already spent one session crafting and considering the proposals that will guide the operations of state government for the next two years. Among them, however, are two freshman representatives: Kalispell Republican Matt Regier and Whitefish Democrat Dave Fern.

For Fern, a chimneysweep and former long-time board member of Whitefish Schools, the pace of the Legislature reminds him of college.

“It’s project-based learning. There’s a lot of immediacy to it,” Fern said, leaning back in his chair on the floor of the House of Representatives, where about a dozen lawmakers mill about and chat at the end of another long legislative day.

Bills can range from a half-page measure intended to clean up existing statutory language to massive spending bills or dense overhauls of programs like Medicaid. And failing to do your homework, Fern said, isn’t an option.

“If you don’t do this, you’re going to screw up, and it’s going to be very apparent.”

Across the aisle on the House floor sits the desk of the Flathead’s other freshman lawmaker. Earlier in the day, Regier took some time out of the daily grind to speak in the office of his father, Sen. Keith Regier, R-Whitefish.

While he acknowledges that the family connection gives him a leg up on other legislative freshmen, the younger Regier notes that he’s still had to approach the steep learning curve independently.

“While he’s been a great resource and has been there, he’s never stepped in and directed anything,” Regier said. “I’ve still had to find out where the bathrooms are. ... I still have to learn on my own.”

It’s only three weeks into the session, but Regier added that after quizzing other legislators, he’s already developed a system for tracking the myriad legislation he’ll have to weigh in on, both in committees and on the House floor.

“Everybody’s got their own system down. I rely a whole bunch on an Excel spreadsheet where I’m keeping track of each bill and each vote,” he said.

Outside the Capitol, ice-covered residential streets lace the hills in Helena’s surrounding neighborhoods.

Finding housing for the four-month session is a perennial problem for Montana’s part-time lawmakers, but Regier said his father was able to set him up with a valuable household just a couple blocks away. It includes fellow Kalispell legislator Mark Blasdel, a Republican Senator and chair of that chamber’s tax committee, and Sen. Scott Sales, the Bozeman Republican serving as the President of the Senate for the 65th Legislature.

“Dad’s just one resource ... but they have a ton of years of experience,” he said, adding, “They get a lot of dumb questions, but they say they’re not tired of answering them. Yet.”

Fern said he got lucky with a long-term Airbnb stay just four blocks from the Capitol building that was extended as a rental after his freshman orientation at the end of last year. He doesn’t spend much time there, though.

On Wednesday, Fern said he woke up at 5 a.m., breezed through a couple newspapers, wrote a few emails and was at the Capitol by 6:30 a.m. to print out materials for a pair his education bills up for committee hearings that afternoon.

He also prepared for another one of his bills that was up for debate on the House floor at 1 p.m., but also ended up talking to another legislator about infrastructure projects for Whitefish.

“I spent 15, 20 minutes talking about that, and that’s just the way time kind of disappears.”

Outside the needs of his constituents, though, Fern is also attending to the needs of his body. With a smile, he notes, “I’m on orders from home to eat a lot of vegetables, eat my vitamins.”

By 7 a.m., he was due at the Democratic caucus, discussing what bills would be heard that day and how the party leadership hoped the votes would go. An hour later was his committee meeting, followed by an impromptu meeting with a group of rabbis who wanted to thank Flathead lawmakers for their support after Whitefish suddenly became the target of anti-Semitic groups last month.

He had lunch in the Capitol Rotunda with a group advocating for persons with disabilities, followed by the floor session, “speed-reading” a slew of upcoming bills, then his afternoon committee meeting.

Regier’s day was similarly light on spare time. Beyond the daily hustle, though, he said one of the biggest challenges is simply familiarizing himself with the faces and names of legislators, government officials, lobbyists and other characters that pack the five floors of the Capital during Helena’s busy season.

“I can see the value of being a veteran legislator; you know who’s representing what organization, you know the tendencies of other legislators,” he said.

Although just a few weeks into his new job, Regier said if he had to offer advice to a freshman, it would be this: “Just keep your mouth shut, and listen. And when you do talk, ask a lot of questions. It’s a learning process, and that’s the only way to learn.”

While they occupy seats on separate sides of the aisle, both of the Flathead’s freshmen are surprised by one common thread of the session to date — the civility.

“There’s a lot of great people on the other side of the aisle. I think I’ll have really great friendships,” Fern said. “You have to know the person, and know where they’re coming from.”

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