MPR: The One House Debate

The One House Debate
by Laura McCallum
January 31, 2000

Minnesota lawmakers will take up Governor Ventura's top priority: whether to put a one-house legislature on the November ballot. Ventura is staking his political clout on the issue, but its prospects at the Capitol are far from certain.

Session 2000
For the latest information about the 2000 Legislature, see MPR's Session 2000 section.

UNICAMERALISM IS ONE OF THOSE RARE political issues that doesn't break down along party lines, or seniority in the Legislature, or rural versus metro. There's virtually no pattern to predict which side a legislator will come down on. One of the biggest cheerleaders of a one-house legislature is Republican House Speaker Steve Sviggum of Kenyon, currently serving his 11th term, and one of its biggest detractors is DFL Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe of Erskine, who was first elected in 1970.

Moe: The bottom line for me is why do you want to make it easier to make laws? I thought the lawmaking process was supposed to be a cumbersome, complicated process and I don't think it should be simplified.

But unicameral supporters say there's no reason the average citizen trying to follow a bill should have to go before two legislative bodies and a conference committee which often negotiates behind closed doors.

Erickson: It's really made for insiders and for lobbyists.

Jim Erickson should know. The longtime lobbyist is now pushing a one-house legislature on behalf of Citizens Committee for Legislative Reform, the political arm of Minnesotans for a Single House. The group has raised more than $500,000 to promote the issue. Erickson says the bicameral system is difficult for newcomers to navigate, and allows legislators to take politically-popular votes if they know the other body will kill the bill.

Erickson: And I think if we can go to a system that gets away from that, the state of Minnesota will be better for it, and I think other states will follow our lead.

Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral system. Erickson has been lobbying legislators for a couple of months now, and he believes up to a third of the Legislature either supports unicameral or is at least willing to put it on the ballot, a third is completely opposed, and another third is undecided. Governor Ventura says legislators have a conflict of interest in deciding the fate of the system that pays their salaries, and regardless of their feelings on the issue, they should let the voters decide. He issued a clear challenge at a legislative hearing in Fergus Falls in November.

Ventura: And if legislators choose not to allow the public to vote on this issue, yes, than I will actively work against their re-election because I feel that is very elitist and I feel that it's not in the best interest of a constitutional amendment of this magnitude of how we will govern, that should be determined by people who do not have a conflict of interest.

Moe: And my response to the Governor is: make my day.

Senator Moe says he's not worried about the governor campaigning against him, because his constituents don't want a unicameral legislature.

Moe: Overwhelming, they're opposed to it - overwhelming. I'm talking about having 22 town meetings, just got done with them. Overwhelmingly opposed to it.

Moe says some rural voters are worried about losing clout if they go from having two elected representatives in St. Paul to one, a concern often cited by unicameral opponents. But House Speaker Sviggum says that's a bogus argument, because outstate Minnesota won't lose any proportional representation.

Sviggum: I think it's kind of been presented that way by some who are against it and don't want to change it, and bring this fear, this bogeyman out of the closet, saying, "Well, greater Minnesota's going to lose our clout, gonna lose our power, gonna lose our influence - that's not the case! That's absolutely not the case! Proportionally, there's gonna be no more reduction in greater Minnesota than there will be from the metropolitan area.

Sviggum predicts the Republican-controlled House will vote to put a one-house legislature on the November ballot, and he's already scheduled an early vote on it. But many observers think the issue will fail in the DFL-controlled Senate.

Although Governor Ventura is using his bully pulpit to promote unicameralism, he actually has no say in the matter; it requires a simple majority in both houses to put it on the ballot, and doesn't need the governor's signature. Ventura also has no Reform Party allies in the Legislature to help him pass the bill, and has not actively worked to elect Reformers in recent special elections.

Ironically, Ventura benefitted last session from the bicameral system he rails against. Several of his initiatives would have failed but for final-hour conference committee decisions. But the governor is making headway among the public in arguing that they should be able to decide the matter. A recent Star Tribune poll found 70 percent want to be able to vote on a unicameral system. No matter what the polls say, Senator Moe says if he and his constituents don't think it's a good idea, he won't vote to put it on the ballot.

Moe: That's a very dangerous threshold to apply to constitutional amendments. Because if that's the threshold we apply, then I'm afraid Minnesotans are going to be exposed to some terrible political shenanigans through constitutional amendment ballot efforts that I don't think we want to get into.

Opponents point out that more than 300 constitutional amendments were proposed over the past seven years, yet the Legislature voted to put only six on the ballot.

If a one-house legislature does get on the ballot, Governor Ventura, who has resisted talking about specific unicameral proposals, says there will be plenty of time to talk about the logistics of how it would work. But opponents are predicting a fall campaign limited to rhetoric and 30-second ads with little substance.

Sue Rockne, who's lobbied the Legislature for four decades as either a citizen or paid lobbyist, is on the steering committee of OUCH - Opponents of a Unicameral House - a group which has only raised about $6,000.

Rockne: This is going to be, I suppose between the two sides and everybody who gets involved, $4 to $5 million dollars in ads. And it's not what the public's really demanding, nor is it what the public needs; the public should be focusing on the elections and the persons that will be their representatives to make these decisions.

The same polls that show Minnesotans want a chance to vote on a one-house legislature also show more than half don't like the idea.

Although Governor Ventura is making unicameral his top priority for the session, it is by no means the biggest policy decision facing the 2000 Legislature, in what's ostensibly a short session devoted to the bonding bill to fund capital improvements across the state. Both Republicans and Democrats are pledging to pass legislation to protect individual privacy, although their proposals differ, and lawmakers will debate whether to allow patients to sue their HMOs. And the social issue that nearly always threatens to derail the Legislature - abortion restrictions - will be back again this year, with opponents of legalized abortion hoping to pass a bill requiring women to receive information about abortion 24 hours before the procedure.

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