A ride through paradise
Earlier in our legislative careers, now Senate President Matt Regier and now Senator Dave Fern took a bike ride (not E-Bikes!), in a nearby county. The first half of the ride was all uphill. Then after going as far as our bodies would endure, a deserved reprieve and a coast back to where the vehicle which was parked, providentially at the brewery awaiting us. It was an early summer day and the lunch and beer were hard to beat. I share this to you because developing relationships are important and no so more within the political arena. Matt did his best to provide pushback on some of the property tax bills, a portion of (HB 231), I carried multiple times on the Senate floor. Somewhere in the scrum, I walked back to his seat, closest to the doors in the back row and reminded him of that perfect early summer day.
It acted as the ice breaker I sought. We took ourselves many miles from the competition of tax policy and to a better place we might prefer to have been.
The politics of the Senate was headlined by a breakaway group of nine Republicans who sometimes voted with Democrats.
To be clear there was general unanimity among the thirty-two Republicans when it came to environmental and social issues along with the 270-million-dollar annual income tax reduction. Items that included school funding, Medicaid, child care, property taxes and approval of the final budget attracted nine more moderate Republicans.
My good friend Senator Mike Yakawich, R, Billings was a bit of hybrid. He’d be classified as one of the 23 but looking closer at his votes, one would see a pattern of independence; especially on health care issues including the re-authorization of Medicaid. I serve with Mike on the Behavioral Health Commission and one could not find a stronger advocate for the cause.
Be cautious when you generalize.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties are always careful in breaking too far from their platforms and base voters. Subscribing to a big tent theory of inclusion might have allowed for the necessary mediation to better align the majority. Feelings were hurt from day one and an opportunity to be a powerful diverse majority evaporated, and instead an insurmountable barrier was built.
We Democrats held it together in the Senate. Minority leader Pat Flowers was a more than capable leader and his willingness to operate under a bigger tent allowing for some minority opinions to be expressed with reciprocal respect. The social issues position of both parties are over leveraged and often time fail to reflect the views of the rank and file voter. The default party seems to belong to the Republicans. Gaining more seats especially in population centers such as Billings and Great Falls is a challenge for the minority. What will it take to do so?
The nine troublesome Senate Republicans endured and from my conversations with them, firmly believe that they represent the interests of their constituents. A moderate Republican commented to me, “I ran on Medicaid, public education and jobs.”
Sounds like a Democrat!
The collaborative model may last for some time. If so, we then have then arrived at the sweet spot. It places great significance at the governor’s office and the future office holder. This chapter of Montana politics ends. There will likely be some line item vetoes to address some of the long term fiscal challenges. Soon, we legislators will go back to work on our interim committee assignments thinking about the now and the future.
Dave Fern
SD 2, Whitefish/Columbia Falls