LEADERSHIP POWERS

In the Legislature . . .
Politics kindle differences in leader positions


The positions of House speaker and Senate president look very
similar.

Both stand at the front of their respective chambers, pound the
gavel with authority, and appear to be in firm control of the
legislative process.

But most similarities end there. The House speaker is considered
the second most powerful person in state government, while the
Senate president acts mainly as the parliamentary leader of the
Senate and does not exercise leadership over the majority caucus.

Why the difference?

Politics, of course -- specifically, the meteoric rise of the
Farmer-Labor Party in the early 1930s and the Conservatives'
effort to stem its influence.

In January 1931, Farmer-Labor Gov. Floyd B. Olson and his Lt.
Gov. Henry Arens faced a Senate controlled by Conservatives who
feared the populist lieutenant governor would usurp their power.

At that time, the lieutenant governor presided over the Senate
and had the authority to make all committee appointments -- just
as the House speaker does today. 

But Conservative members, who claimed to hold a two-to-one
majority in the Senate, weren't about to let Arens appoint a
majority of Farmer-Laborites to the Rules Committee. They changed
the rules to limit Arens' influence, and the Senate has never
been the same since.

Minnesota, like most states, had modeled the lieutenant
governor's role as president of the Senate after the federal
practice of having the U.S. vice president preside over the U.S.
Senate.

But since there was nothing in the Minnesota Constitution or law
to outline that arrangement, all Senate leaders had to do was
change its rules. The change, however, didn't come without a
fight.

On Jan. 6, 1931, the opening day of the legislative session and
the day the new administration was to take office, Senate
Liberals sensed something was afoot and immediately attempted to
adopt the rules that had governed the previous session.

That would have allowed the lieutenant governor to retain his
power, but the motion failed on a 38-29 vote. Then, the
Conservatives, as Republicans were called then, sprung into
action.

By a similar margin, they approved a resolution that stacked the
all-powerful Senate Rules Committee with their own members. Sen.
Christian Rosenmeier of Little Falls then immediately moved to
suspend rules that pertained to the duties of the president. They
then elected a president pro tem, Conservative Sen. Adolph S.
Larson of Sandstone, to preside over the Senate -- a move that
effectively replaced the lieutenant governor.

Farmer-Laborites called the actions "a ruthless seizure of
unwarranted power" and accused the Conservatives of ignoring
their efforts to reach a 
compromise.

In the days following that tumultuous opening day of the 1931
Session, Conservatives insisted they had a high respect for Gov.
Olson and would not block his programs. They sought to soften
their actions by having Arens appoint the rest of the committees,
but the damage was done.

The Senate functioned without committees for two weeks until the
Rules Committee changed "Permanent Rules of the Senate No. 2."
The new rule created the Committee on Committees to be made up of
five members, appointed by the chair of the Rules Committee and
confirmed by the Senate.

Power was officially stripped from the president of the Senate
and given to the chair of the Rules Committee and consequently
the chair of the Committee on Committees. The lieutenant governor
continued to be available for the next 40 years to break tie
votes and to ensure that rules of debate were followed. But his
role was essentially limited to standing on the sidelines.

The Senate maintained its tradition of unofficial leadership
through the chairs of the Rules Committee and the Committee on
Committees, also allowing the strong personalities of Sens. Chris
Rosenmeier and his son, Gordon, to exert control up through the
late 1960s.

During that time, Conservative Sen. Stanley Holmquist from Grove
City was chair of the Rules Committee, which had always included
the position of majority leader. Considered to be mainly
administrative, majority leader was not the highly sought after
position it is today.

But toward the end of the Rosenmeier era, Holmquist skillfully
began to assert his authority, expanding the power of the
majority leader position.

During that time, in 1971, the lieutenant governor was bumped
altogether from the Senate. Again, the issue was control of the
Senate -- just as it was 40 years earlier.

Then Lt. Gov. Rudy Perpich attempted to block the seating of Sen.
Richard Palmer, which would have given the Conservatives a
one-vote majority.

Current Senate President Jerome Hughes (DFL-Maplewood) said
Perpich's action was "the straw that broke the camel's back." 

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled against Perpich's action and
established the lieutenant governor as a full-time member of the
executive branch.

The Conservatives once again organized the Senate, and, in 1972,
Minnesota voters approved a constitutional amendment that removed
the lieutenant governor as the presiding officer of the body.

Hughes said that the Senate could have formed a position equal to
that of the House speaker, but didn't want members beholden to
one leader. The Senate president conducts the business of the
Senate without the responsibility of pushing partisan
legislation, he added.

"In my opinion this has strengthened the Senate and made it more
egalitarian," said Hughes.

But that assumption is subject to debate.

After the establishment of the Senate president as a leader of
the more non-partisan business of the Senate, power was further
consolidated in the majority leader position.

In 1973, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party took control of the
Senate for the first time in decades. Majority Leader Nick
Coleman (DFL-St. Paul) battled with Sen. Jack Davies (DFL-Mpls)
who chaired the Committee on Committees and also sat on the Rules
Committee.

The two positions functioned more or less "as co-equal powers"
for a time, said Davies, until "Coleman won that fight."

In 1977, Coleman eliminated the Committee on Committees and made
it a subcommittee of the Rules Committee -- which Coleman chaired
as majority leader. That further consolidated power with the
majority leader and limited Davies' influence. 

This was the final move leading to the modern-day perception that
the House speaker and Senate majority leader hold equal
positions. 

In truth, there never have been equal positions between the two
houses because leadership powers have evolved very differently in
each body.

But there's little doubt that once outside their respective
chambers, similarities between the Senate president and the House
speaker come to an end.

-- Bob DeBoer



Originally published in 1992 in the Session Weekly, a weekly
newsmagazine published by the Minnesota House Public Information
Office.

***Last Update 8/5/94 (jtt) Last Review 8/5/94 (jtt) ***